VIS MEDICATRIX NATURE 643 



we ourselves know when we command our course or send 

 an arrow to its mark. What we must particularly take ac- 

 count of is the main trend in evolution, making persistently 

 for the dominance of mentality and the establishment even- 

 tually of personality. Whether what we now experience be 

 the goal or near the goal, it gives significance to the whole 

 long journey. And if Man be the highest product of evo- 

 lution, and if the central reality in our life is our clear pur- 

 pose, may we not ask whether there is not also a purpose 

 at the core of the world-process ? Von Baer, the founder of 

 embryology, remarks that the naturalist is not precluded 

 from asking "whether the totality of details leads him to 

 a general and final basis of intentional design ", and our 

 foregoing discussions have led us to the conclusion that a 

 scientific description of Nature is not inconsistent with a 

 philosophical or religious interpretation in terms of purpose 

 which manifests itself in the order of Nature, in keeping 

 Nature in lasting remembrance. We must, however, recog- 

 nise that just as Man's conceived purpose transcends the 

 mammal's perceived purpose, as that in turn transcends the 

 lower animal's ingrained or organised purposiveness, so, but 

 much more, will the Divine Purpose transcend our highest 

 thoughts of it. But we deem that if we err in using the 

 word Purpose the biggest word we have we err less griev- 

 ously than if we used no word at all. 



Promise. For millions and millions of years there was 

 throughout Nature no voice of life at all nothing to break 

 the silence but the thunder and the cataract, the waves on 

 the shore, and the wind among the trees. The morning 

 stars sang together and the little hills clapped their hands, 

 but there was no voice of life at all. The long lasting silence 

 was first broken by insects, but they never got beyond in- 



