430 THE ASCENT OF MAN 



their movements upward through the organic king- 

 dom, we watched the results which each achieved 

 — always high, and always waxing higher ; and 

 though what we call Evil dogged each step with 

 sinister and sometimes staggering malevolence, the 

 balance when struck was always good upon the 

 whole. Then came the last great act of the 

 organic process, the act which finally revealed 

 to teleology its hitherto obscured end, the organi- 

 zation of the Mammalia, the Kingdom of the 

 Mothers. So full of ethical possibility is this single 

 creation that one might stake the character of 

 Evolution upon the Mammalia alone. On the 

 biological side, as we have seen, the Evolution of 

 the Mammalia means the Evolution of Mothers ; 

 on the sociological side, the Evolution of the 

 Family; and on the moral side, the Evolution of 

 Love. How are we to characterize a process which 

 ripened fruits like these? That the very animal 

 kingdom had for its end and crown a class of 

 animals who owe their name, their place, and 

 their whole existence to Altruism ; that through 

 these Mothers society has been furnished with an 

 institution for generating, concentrating, purifying, 

 and redistributing Love in all its enduring 

 forms ; that the perfecting of Love is thus not an 

 incident in Nature but everywhere the largest part 



