THE LESSON OF EVOLUTION 41 



to do the work they have done, it follows that the 

 wonderful and the beautiful must be recognised as 

 prospective agents in biology. 



But if all these elaborate arrangements have been 

 designed for the purpose of constraining man to evolve 

 his own mind, there must be some reason for it. If it 

 is part of the scheme that each of us should do his 

 best to cultivate his intellect and his moral sense, it 

 must be for some ulterior object which we do not yet 

 know. We see some men and women devote them- 

 selves to the welfare of mankind. They go through 

 the whole ethical evolution and follow strictly their 

 consciences, refusing to do wrong, even under great 

 temptation. And then they die. Is that the end ? 

 The whole progress of evolution, from the creation of 

 the cosmic dust, has for its goal the production of 

 these men and women ; and, if they have perished, all 

 appears to have miscarried. Was man given life, 

 thought, and freedom of action for nothing ? I cannot 

 think so, because I cannot believe that the process of 

 evolution is meaningless. I cannot believe that evolu- 

 tion will have no permanent effect. I cannot believe 

 that after the material universe has passed away, the 

 universal mind, which ordered it, will be exactly as it 

 was before psychological evolution began. If mind is 

 indestructible, the evolved human mind must re-act on 

 the universal mind and change it. And thus I feel 

 constrained to believe that psychological evolution 

 may continue after the death of the body, in which 

 the mind is temporarily encased. 



If evolution was gradually leading to a state of 

 perfect happiness on earth, if we might suppose that 

 a millennium was approaching, then we might possibly 



