LECTURE XXVI. 

 LAW OF SELF- ACTIVITY. 



Progress of Evolution through interaction of par- 

 tially opposed forces. Regular movement could not 

 spare either. Variation and heredity ; Nature and 

 nurture ; change and conservatism ; egoism and altru- 

 ism ; cooperation and individualism. Law of mutual 

 aid, and law of self-activity. 



Nature a thrifty investor ; withdraws all unused in- 

 vestments. Parable of talents. Branch in which no 

 sap moves dies. Unexercised functions disappear in 

 the individual. The organs atrophy. So in the race. 

 What is latent long, atrophies by degrees. Nature 

 changes her plans as conditions change. Heredity 

 causes her to remember them. Pineal eye. Gills. 

 Environment affects the individual chiefly by modi- 

 fying local or general self-activity. What comes out 

 of a man determines his life. Learn to do right by 

 doing right. 



1. Self-activity the cause of individual progress. 



2. Cause of specific acceleration. Is it inherited ac- 

 celeration ? Or does Nature favor those who use their 

 powers as against those with equal powers unused ? 

 Are use and non-use hereditary, or not ? 



3. Source of happiness. Enjoyment of life. Misery 

 comes from lack of self-activity. 



Causes of personal degeneration : 



