4 6 EVOLUTION MADE PLAIN 
chalked out by Mother Nature eons ago when 
inorganic matter first felt the stir of life. 
Jesus was announcing this principle when he 
said, “For whosoever will save his life”—strive 
for self alone—“shall lose it; and whosoever 
will lose his life for my sake”—and the sake 
of humanity which Jesus himself valued higher 
than his own life—“shall find it.” Though only 
a few will have occasion to suffer martyrdom, 
the call to all of us is to live the life of unself¬ 
ishness, be the end what it may. To live for 
the race is just as noble, if less dramatic, as 
to die for it. 
Thus we find that Nature’s most vital prin¬ 
ciple is in perfect accord with the profoundest 
religious truths. We have been taught that 
Nature is cruel, that her hands are red with 
the blood of the innocent, but this idea was 
born of our short-sightedness. We could not 
see beyond the outward act to the underlying 
law and its results. 
For man so to shape his life and deeds as to 
be in harmony with the great law of natural 
selection and with the fundamental principle 
of religion does not mean self-effacement, the 
suppression of individuality. On the contrary, 
it means self-development, individuality in the 
best sense. As a species or a race is com¬ 
posed of individuals, the more highly developed 
are the individuals the greater the species. 
Self-development is the growth of the individ¬ 
ual out of narrow selfishiness and in accord 
with the laws of human betterment. Selfish¬ 
ness expanded, refined and ennobled becomes 
altruism, the love of ethers. 
