SOME ASPECTS OF ZOOLOGY 31 



have risen from a lower condition, just as these schemes for 

 betterment present another aspect of the same doctrine, 

 namely, that we are capable of rising to a higher condition. 



It is because of our belief in the doctrine of evolution that 

 we recognise that man has progressed in the past. We no 

 longer believe that he has degraded from a primitively perfect 

 and semi-divine condition. And it is because of our belief in 

 the efficacy and continuity of evolution that we confidently 

 expect that man is able to progress in the future and to rise to 

 a higher social state than that in which he now is. 



Evolution is a biological doctrine, and, in its appHcation to 

 human affairs, a zoological doctrine ; for, as I have already 

 indicated, the study of vegetable evolution offers but few 

 points of contact for the student of human sociology. 



Need I bring forward any further evidence in support of 

 the proposition that the study of zoology has special usefuhiess 

 in connection with problems that have to be decided after the 

 war ? 



Well then, if we are to embark upon courses fraught with 

 every possibility of good and evil for mankind, and are im- 

 pelled to these courses by a faith in evolution, is it not desirable, 

 is it not necessary, that we should examine the doctrine 1 



Evolution is for most people a term of vague import, some- 

 what hazily associated with such catchwords as the " struggle 

 for existence " and the " survival of the fittest." 



Actually, in its widest sense, evolution is the statement 

 that nothing stands still ; it is the modern rendering of the 

 iravra pel of Heracleitus. 



The modern doctrine does not assert that there is any 

 tendency towards perfection, towards a divine ideal, as the 

 evolutionists of the eighteenth century taught. 



Looked at in its widest aspect, zoology (and no less botany) 

 teach us that the course of evolution has been very complex 

 and very manifold. On the whole, organisation has progressed 

 greatly in complexity, but not in a straight Une. We continu- 

 ally find rapid advances along a certain line ; then the impetus 

 in this particular direction seems to come to a stop, and a 

 highly speciaUsed race dies out without leaving any successors. 



