GENESIS OF MAN, MORALLY 



modes of existence immeasurably transcending 

 Humanity, yet these must remain unknowa- 

 ble by us. And while this possibility should be 

 allowed its due weight in restraining us from 

 the vain endeavour to formulate the infinite 

 and eternal Sustainer of the universe in terms 

 of our own human nature, as if the highest sym- 

 bols intelligible to us were in reality the highest 

 symbols, nevertheless it can in no way influence 

 or modify our science. To us the development 

 of the noblest of human attributes must ever 

 remain the last term in the stupendous series 

 of cosmic changes, of which the development 

 of planetary systems is the first term. And our 

 special synthesis of the phenomena of cosmic 

 evolution, which began by seeking to explain 

 the genesis of the earth and its companion 

 worlds, will be fitly concluded when we have 

 offered a theory of the genesis of those psychi- 

 cal activities whose end is to secure to mankind 

 the most perfect fulness of life upon this earth, 

 which is its dwelling place. 



The great philosopher whose remark has 

 suggested these reflections would not, however, 

 have been ready to assent to the interpretation 

 here given. Though Kant was one of the chief 

 pioneers of the Doctrine of Evolution, having 

 been the first to propose and to elaborate in de- 

 tail the theory of the nebular origin of planet- 

 ary systems, yet the conception of a continuous 

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