THE CONCEPT OF EVOLUTION 377 



trand Russell on the " Philosophy of Evolution " in Mysti- 

 cism and Logic, 1918). A sense of humour forbids any 

 retort to so true a jest. 



These admissions notwithstanding, the large fact is cer- 

 tain that on the whole there has been for many millions of 

 years progressive differentiation and integration along diverse 

 lines, an increasingly complex and masterly behaviour, a 

 growing emancipation of mind and an approximation to per- 

 sonality. This is the largest fact to be borne in mind in 

 our interpretation of evolution. The process has been on 

 the whole progressive. With Lotze we hear " an onward- 

 advancing melody ". 



We certainly miss part of the impressiveness and sug- 

 gestiveness of the evolutionary process if we do not realise 

 its solidarity. It concerns a developing system, like a great 

 organism, in which the exuberance of one part and the tardi- 

 ness of another cannot be said to disturb the balanced move- 

 ment of the whole. Twigs shoot forth out of due time and 

 are broken off ; huge branches of extraordinary magnificence 

 (like the lost races of Giant Reptiles) fall crashing to the 

 ground, but the tree lives on in order and balance. And 

 if we consider not our biosphere, merely, but the whole cos- 

 mic system that we know, we get the same impression. 

 Evolution is based on order and works out in order. " A 

 certain unity manifests itself then in the Cosmos, a unity 

 comparable to that which the development of an organism 

 reveals " (Joussain, 1912, p. 185). 



Without losing sight of real differences we may believe 

 in a continuity of evolutionary process from inorganic gene- 

 sis to human history, but it must be confessed that there is 

 a good deal of scientific faith implied. Philosophically it 

 seems fair to say that if organic evolution is traced back 



