CHAPTER III 



THE PAST AND THE FUTURE 



i . WE have traced the development of mind from the first 

 efforts of adjustment to sense-stimuli in the individual to a 

 point at which the entire collective life has become in con- 

 ception a unity. At this stage a body of thought has 

 grown up which is in principle a valid though partial 

 interpretation of reality, and a system of conduct which is 

 similarly a partial interpretation of real values. So far the 

 movement of the mind is seen to be founded on the real 

 order, and this is at least one condition of permanent 

 advance in the same direction. What are the further 

 conditions ? What are the capabilities of development in 

 the social mind, and what ground have we for the belief 

 that these capabilities will be fulfilled? The first reply 

 that suggests itself runs on purely empirical lines. We 

 have traced the path of orthogenic evolution a long way. 

 We have seen it describe a certain orbit, and we may infer 

 that this orbit will be prolonged. We may expect then 

 that the stage of self-conscious development will complete 

 itself, and prepare the way for a still higher and wider 

 spiritual synthesis as previous stages have done. Mind 

 as an organising principle will continue to grow indefinitely. 

 But so stated the inference is hasty and precarious. A 

 curve cannot be produced with any certainty unless its law 

 is known, and we have not as yet been able to trace such a 

 law for the advance of mind. We have described one 

 condition of this advance, viz. that rational thought is 

 founded on real relations. But for the rest what we have 

 done is to determine the direction and magnitude of the 



