ON EVOLUTION. 293 
cannot simply be the stamp which the soul bears: it must 
be in a considerable degree dependent upon the state of 
its instrament and medium of manifestation. Assume, how- 
ever, the impression of a duplex, or of a multiplex, per- 
sonality, and Jet it induce the bewildered man to hunt at 
times after some imaginary illusive self. We must needs 
postulate a subject to which it may be ascribed. What, 
then, should the subject of this impression be but a con- 
scious self, a soul whose individuality cerebral confusion has 
left intact? If, from a conscious subject, some portion, 
not recognised while there as constituting a wedded, but 
distinct consciousness. were detached, how should its 
severance leave the impression of a divided consciousness ? 
We may see plainly that what is really missed is some 
desirable habit of mind, faintly remembered, and the com- 
paratively pleasing experiences associated with it ; a multiplex 
personality, if the attempt be made to attach a meaning to 
the phrase, is absolutely unthinkable. 
23. Nothing, therefore, now remains that might seem to forbid 
the conclusion towards which my argument has been tending. 
Evolution is more than the mere complication of molecular 
relations : it brought into view being of a kind which shows 
itself distinct from the material in which those relations find 
place; and, still differentiating and distinguishing, it opened 
up those superior attributes of which we find ourselves 
possessed, and by the aid of which we are enabled to con- 
ceive the existence of, and to ascribe a character to, an 
Eternal Author of the whole, an original and all-compelling 
energy.* Evolution has been raising that curtain-of night 
and emptiness without beginning, which befcre all worlds 
had veiled His glory ; and, in a type of creature exhibited on 
this planet at a comparatively recent date, it has disclosed 
what may be called an image of the invisible God. But Man, 
considered simply as an individual, fails to disclose fully what 
he is, and comes very far short of revealing, as he appears to 
have been destined to reveal, his Author. His social attri- 
butes have need to be duly developed, and to be brought into 
action in a social state, which shall afford adequate scope for 
their exercise. As regards the ultimate prospects of the 
human race, if any physiological progress can be now de- 
tected, the bounds which seem to have been established in 
the fixity of natural laws, render it of comparatively little 
moment. But the sort of facts which, about eighteen 
centuries ago, first made it evident to a chosen few that the 
* 1 Cor, xii. 6 (@td¢ 6 tvepy ar), 
VOL, XXI. Z 
