CHAPTER X 



A NEW FACTOR INITIATING A NEW ERA 



The modification in the entocuneiform bone and 

 in the position of the foramen were "the cloud no 

 bigger than a hand," "the coming event casting its 

 shadow before," whereby a new potential factor 

 entered among the innumerable interacting forces 

 and materials, which in the remote past were the 

 cause of the present as well as of the far-off future 

 conditions in the universe. This new factor has the 

 power of changing the blind drift 1 of these forces and 

 materials into a definite tendency towards a new 

 ideal goal. Until this new factor appeared all 

 things in the universe were helplessly given over to 

 these same blind interactions. Feelings, thoughts, 



1 Is " blind drift " an appropriate phrase for interactions which 

 conform to an unalterable order, determined by the nature of the 

 constituent physical factors among which time and space must 

 be included? Surely it is! The phrase only becomes inap- 

 propriate, when forms of mental force, such for instance as 

 purpose, desire, aversion, fear, hope, are known to be factors in 

 determining the outcome; or in changing the nature of the inter- 

 actions; e. g., when a stream of lava rushes down upon human 

 homes and orchards, with nothing to interpose, that is "blind 

 drift"; when crowds of villagers arrive with shovels, picks, 

 plows drawn by horses, and energetically devote themselves to 

 the opening of wide and deep trenches to divert the flow, then 

 the new direction has not been given by " blind drift." Then 

 the "blind drift" of nature has been superseded by the purpose 

 and effort of man. 



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