254 THE MEANING OF EVOLUTION 



learn of them and to lead lives like theirs. To this 

 process who shall set an end? The advance is slow, 

 as in all evolution; but anyone who wishes to do 

 so may easily detect the direction of the current. 



The evolution of man's physical frame probably 

 has nearly ceased. Gradually organs that are use- 

 less to him are passing away. Slowly his hands are 

 becoming more delicate and refined and skilled. But 

 his evolution has begun to work itself out on en- 

 tirely other lines. We sometimes hear that the men 

 of the past were the full equivalent of the men of 

 to-day. Scholars like to tell us that the population 

 of Athens was finer in quality than any population 

 that has existed since. We must remember that 

 group after group of men may be expected to special- 

 ize intellectually and fail to develop morally and 

 physically. Under these conditions this little branch 

 of the human race runs through its forced flower- 

 ing and comes to an end. With the study of history 

 and the earnest investigation of these lives of the 

 past, new possibilities arise within the human family. 

 The next race that flowers may take longer to decay 

 because it understands better the weaknesses that car- 

 ried away the preceding civilization. In time there 

 will arise a civilization that understands the past. 

 A whole people will some time realize that intel- 

 lectual development alone will not save it, or Athens 



