96 ANIMAL LIFE AND HUMAN PROGRESS 



Another of the many difficulties raised by the evolution- 

 theory is to account for the general progressiveness of the 

 process. There have been blind-alleys, retrogressions, lost 

 races and so forth, but on the whole life has been slowly 

 creeping upwards. Evolution makes for progressive integra- 

 tion. But why should it ? Is it not worth considering 

 whether part of the answer may not be found in the gradual 

 complexifying of the web of life 1 There is established an 

 external system of inter-relations which is always becoming 

 more intricate, and this forms the sieve by which variations 

 are sifted. There has been an evolution of sieves which partly 

 account for the progressive evolution of the sifted. 



Finally, this suggestion arises from our study. The 

 kingdom of man is very different from the realm of organisms, 

 and no one will wisely argue from animals to men without 

 careful verification. Now, one of the great differences is that 

 in mankind the external registration of racial gains is of 

 paramount importance. Language, literature, laws, tradi- 

 tions, institutions and so forth mean so much. But in part 

 these correspond to the external systematisation of inter- 

 relations which we call the " web of life " ; the rest of the 

 counterpart being discoverable in all the multitudinous 

 inter-relations which bind men together in dynamic correla- 

 tion. If so, how carefully we should study all the social 

 inter-relations ; how carefully we should scrutinise them in the 

 light of evolutionary ideals — for they form a sieve for varia- 

 tions and it is idle to think that human society can persist 

 or progress without siftings to take the place of the natural 

 selection now so largely superseded ; how carefully we should 

 seek to reduce what might be called mutual inhibitions and 

 to increase those inter-relations by which we provoke one 

 another to good works. How important for our national 

 future, for civilisation's future, is the improvement of the 

 pattern of the human web of life, and the only way to efEect 

 that is actively to enter into new combinations with noble 

 purpose. Thus we evolve our own sieves, separating chaff 

 from wheat. 



I ca.nnot think that it is other than accurately scientific to 



