i MIND AS A FACTOR IN EVOLUTION 5 



first know what is higher and what lower. To say that the 

 highest thing that .man knows is Mind, or Soul, or Spirit, 

 may be to state an axiom, or to make an assumption. If 

 the latter, I must, at any rate, for the sake of clearness 

 make the assumption here. Evolution "upwards "-Ortho- 

 genie or, as it has been called, Aristogenic Evolution 1 is 

 the growth of Mind, or of the conditions which make 

 Mind possible. 2 Evolution in any other direction is the 

 growth of any other qualities whatever that assist survival. 

 The main purpose of this work is to inquire into the 

 character, tendency, and scope of Orthogenic Evolution : 

 in other words, into the growth of mind. It will be best 

 to say at once that we shall not be concerned with what 

 is called (as I think, confusedly and inappropriately called) 

 the ultimate nature of Mind. We shall not endeavour to 

 trace the origin of Mind out of something else that is not 

 mind. We shall take it as a factor in organic evolution 

 which we shall endeavour to trace backwards to its germ 

 and forwards to its mature development, ascertaining at 

 the same time its relation to other factors. In this inquiry 

 we shall have to do not so much with the inner nature of 

 Mind as with its functions, not so much with what Mind 

 is felt to be by its possessor, as with its operations as 

 apparent to an onlooker. What bearing these investiga- 

 tions may have on the nature of Mind, its origin in the 

 organic world, or its function in the whole of things, are 

 questions upon which our results must speak for them- 

 selves. We shall be occupied with its evolution, not in 

 the sense of its origin, but in the sense of that unrolling 

 of its full nature which is what evolution most strictly 

 means. If Mind is the highest thing, Orthogenic 

 Evolution must consist in the unfolding of all that there 

 is of latent possibility in Mind, the awakening of its 

 powers, the development of its scope. It will be well 

 to take a preliminary view of this development. 



5. Mind, as we are to deal with it, is known by its 

 functions. The function which modern philosophy seized 



1 By Mr. Sutherland, Origin and Growth of the Moral Instinct 

 Vol. I. p. 29. 



2 Taking these conditions into account we shall be able to substitute 

 a more comprehensive definition at a later stage, 



