198 THE WHENCE AND THE WHITHER OF MAN 



But you will ask, What becomes of Mr. Darwin's 

 theory of evolution, if obedience to the laws of indi- 

 vidual being is more important than conformity to 

 external conditions? Both are evidently necessary, 

 and they are not so different as they may seem at first 

 sight. They are really one and the same. Bringing 

 out the best and highest there is in us, is the only 

 true conformity to that which is deepest and surest 

 and most enduring in our environment. That in en- 

 vironment which makes for digestion is almost pal- 

 pable and tangible, that which makes for activity less 

 so perhaps ; but that which makes for brain and truth 

 and right is intangible and invisible. We easily fail 

 to notice it ; and, unless we take a careful view of 

 the course of development in the highest forms of 

 life, we may be inclined to deny its existence. But it 

 is surely there, if man is a product of evolution. 



Each successive stage of animal life is not the pre- 

 ceding stage on a higher plane, but the preceding 

 stage modified in conformity to the environment of 

 that from which it has just arisen. Says Professor 

 Hertwig* : " During the process of organic development 

 the external is continually becoming an integral part of 

 the individual. The germ is continually growing and 

 changing at the expense of surrounding conditions." 

 Every stage thus contains the result of a host of re- 

 actions to a ruder and older portion of environment. 

 And the higher we go the more has the original proto- 

 plasm and structure been modified as the result of 

 these reactions. 



We have seen clearly that environment must be 

 studied through its effect upon living beings. Viewed' 



* Hertwig : Zeit- und Streitfragen, p. 83. 



