4O THE LESSON OF EVOLUTION 



are either of use to their possessors or else that they 

 have been of use to some ancestor, and are, therefore, 

 in no way connected with the evolution of man. They 

 are thought to be merely side branches, which led to 

 nothing, from the main stem of evolution. These 

 attempts to make the utilitarian doctrine universal 

 were never agreed to by Darwin, and, to the best of 

 my judgment, they have not been established. 1 



It seems to me certain that in the progress of 

 biological evolution many characters have been de- 

 veloped, which have never been of any use to their 

 possessors, but which have been of the greatest use in 

 developing the mind of man. 



We all recognise what science has done for civilisa- 

 tion. But how did the scientific study of nature 

 begin, and why is it carried on ? No doubt it is 

 largely due to man trying to make himself more 

 comfortable by improving his surroundings. But this 

 is the work of applied science only ; and for workers in 

 pure science mere utility has no charms. It is the 

 wonderful and the beautiful in nature which are, and 

 always will be, the moving forces of pure science. 

 Utility has never been the only agent which excites 

 men's minds to observe and to reason ; and all the 

 great laws of nature have been discovered without any 

 reference to it. Without the beauty and wonderful 

 complexity of natural objects man would never have 

 risen above the level of an intelligent beast. Biolo- 

 gists too often forget that wonder and admiration are 

 the principal moving forces in psychology. And, as 

 we may feel sure that beautiful objects were intended 



1 See Jour. Linn. Soc. Zool., xxvi. p. 330, and Ann. Mag. Nat. 

 Hist., Ser. 7, vol. vii. p. 221. 



