NATURE CROWNED IN MAN 5G7 



Taking a broader than scientific view, we recognise that 

 there are other ways in which it may be said that Nature 

 is crowned in Man. He is Nature's interpreter, rationalising 

 the whole. In him the inherent rationality of Nature, the 

 Logos, became articulate, and found, moreover, joyous appre- 

 ciation. 



We cling to the Aristotelian doctrine of the End as the 

 philosophical explanation of what goes before. As Prof. A. 

 S. Pringle-Pattison puts it in his Gifford Lectures, "The 

 nature of a power at work in any process is only revealed 

 in the process as a whole. It is revealed progressively in 

 the different stages, but it cannot be fully and truly known 

 until the final stage is reached. . . . Now man is, from this 

 point of view, the last term in the series, and the world is 

 not complete without him." We are grateful for what seems 

 to us wise teaching, but we venture to suggest that in regard 

 to a race and an external heritage that may go on evolving 

 for millions of years to come it is premature to speak of 

 1 final stage ' or ' last term '. 



SUMMARY. 



There are in the Realm of Organisms many masterpieces, reach- 

 ing along diverse lines to approximately equal heights of differentia- 

 tion and integration. Thus many insects in their way attain to 

 extraordinary perfection. Yet no one hesitates in ranking birds 

 and mammals as much ' higher '. This means that they excel in being 

 very highly differentiated and integrated, but also that they exhibit 

 the fullest expression of what the trend of evolution seems to make 

 for, namely, freedom, mastery, and joyous consciousness. We call 

 them " higher " for two objective reasons, but we colour these with 

 an appreciation of values. 



With inconceivable slowness the evolving stock of Primates was 

 differentiated along distinct lines. New World monkeys, Old World 

 monkeys, small anthropoids, and large anthropoids were in turn 



