VIII 



EVOLUTION AND THE HIGHER HUMAN LIFE 



WE have now reached the last division of the large 

 subject that has occupied our thoughts for so long. 

 The present title has been chosen because the questions 

 now before us relate to the highest human ideas belong- 

 ing to the departments of ethics, religion, theology, 

 science, and philosophy. These matters may seem at 

 first sight to be far removed from the territory of the nat- 

 uralist as such, and quite exempt from the control of laws 

 which determine the nature and history of the human 

 individual in physical, mental, and social respects. 

 Yet one reason alone would impel us onward : we can- 

 not close the present examination into the basic facts of 

 evolution and into the scope of the doctrine without ask- 

 ing to what extent a belief in its truth may affect our 

 earlier formed conceptions of nature and supernature. 

 Heretofore these possible effects upon what may be 

 dearly cherished intellectual possessions have received 

 no attention, so that we might learn how evolution 

 works in the lower fields of organic life in general and 

 human life in particular without being disturbed by 

 them. No doubt, however, the conviction has grown 

 with each step in our progress that the principles we 

 have learned must cause us to readjust our views of the 

 highest elements in human thought to a degree that 

 must be inversely proportional to our previous acquaint- 



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