60 LIFE: ITS ORIGIN AND NATURE 
manifestation. Higher and higher forms of life 
appeared, as the result of gradual evolution. 
Finally, man appeared. Is he the final product? 
Does he represent the final link in the chain of 
evolution? One can hardly think so! It may 
be humiliating to our pride, but there are many 
philosophers, as we know, who contend that a 
superior race will come into being, having a 
type of mentality relatively as superior to 
man’s, as man’s is superior to (say) a dog’s. 
There will be the “Supermen,” possessing super¬ 
consciousness. What may follow this step in 
evolution is still more problematical. 
Why are we here? Why does life manifest it¬ 
self at all? Doubtless the most obvious reply to 
this question is that it is the innate quality or 
property of living matter thus to express and 
perpetuate itself. The desire for expression is 
universal—to live, to create. It is second only 
to self-preservation. Yet, if mere perpetuation 
were the object, and nothing more, what a futile 
world it would be! Many of the lower forms 
of life die immediately they have procreated 
(i. c., the males), while the females lay their 
eggs, which are hatched out into similar living 
creatures, which in turn go through the same 
process and so on ad infinitum and ad nauseam. 
To what end? If there is no evolution, no mean¬ 
ing and no finality to life, it would indeed be a 
curious world in which we live! 
If life has any meaning, it must be a psycho¬ 
logical meaning; we have already seen the grad¬ 
ual perfection of the body, and the expansion or 
the living consciousness, during countless ages 
of evolution. Is the object of being to perfect 
