CHAPTER IX.

THE NATURAL LAW OF SELECTION.
Darwin's law of natural selection is a theory and not a law.
This correction is offered by a science which has extended its investigation beyond the point arrived at by Mr. Darwin.
An exposition of the true factors and causes of evolution rests, primarily, upon the proved fact of life after physical death. Secondarily, it rests upon the fact of a correlated development of individual life upon two planes of existence. The exposition of these true factors and causes is, at the same time, an exposition of the Natural Law of Selection.
Darwinism is a masterpiece of cold intelligence focused upon the physical plane. Spiritual intuition plays no part in his work. The profound effect of his discoveries was inevitable. Average intelligence looks to exceptional intelligence for leadership. It was inevitable that the lesser scientist and the less acute reasoner should defer to his masterly logic as well as to his indisputable facts. There was none among his own schoolmen to dispute him. The people were simply confounded. Many men, both learned and unlearned, rejected his conclusions upon their own intuitions as to a spiritual side of life. None, however, had the facts at command nor the rational evidence to support those spiritual intuitions and convictions.
All false systems of philosophy rest upon misinterpretations of Nature.
Nature, both in fact and in principle, is changeless.
For example: Our solar system has been changeless since man has inhabited this planet. The theories, however, which have been projected in relation to that system have been numer-
164
THE NATURAL LAW OF SELECTION. 165
ous and contradictory. Even the opinions relating to the origin of our planet would make a considerable volume.
Mr. Darwin discovered nothing but bald physical facts. He based his theories upon these partial data alone. He did not, apparently, entertain a single intuition of super-physical matter or super-physical forces. It was, therefore, natural that Dar- win should see in man merely an improved ape.
The singular fact remains that neither Darwin nor the school of modern physical science has actually bridged the gulf be- tween man and animal. They have come down to it on both sides, but the link is still missing. Nature does not furnish hybrid types. There are animals resembling humans. There are humans resembling animals. Nobody, however, has discovered a normal type that it can not easily assign to the animal or the human kingdom. The fact remains that monkeys and men, though unquestionably related, are yet distinct products of Na- ture. If the evolution from the ape to man were a mere mat- ter of degree, the chasm which now exists between them would be filled with hybrid types, with crossings and recrossings of that which could be classified as neither ape nor man.
That element which differentiates man from animal is as clearly distinguishable as that which differentiates plant from animal.
The physical facts of evolution, as reported by Darwin, have been known for ages to certain special students. These few, however, arrived at their knowledge through the study of spir- itual, rather than physical, processes. Hence the extreme diffi- culty of presenting that knowledge to the world. Indeed, such presentation were impossible now except for the preparatory work accomplished through the development of the physical sciences.
For ages the higher science has recognized all struggles of intelligent life upon the physical plane. Neither the struggle for nutrition nor the struggle for reproduction has been over- looked. In reality, science demonstrates that all of the achieve-
166 HARMONICS OF EVOLUTION.
ments of intelligent life, physical, mental and moral, are the re- sults of effort or struggle. By reason of its extended research upon two planes of existence and over long periods of time, science is able to say:
(1) Nature is not hostile in principle nor competitive in operation.
(2) Neither the struggle for nutrition nor the struggle for reproduction is the cause of the evolution of man.
(3) Evolution is not a battle of the physically strong against the physically weak.
(4) Survival depends upon other laws and conditions than physical.
(5) Sex is more than a physical function.
(6) Individual destiny is something more than a contribution to species.
Familiarity with evolutionary processes during long periods of time enables the higher science to say:
(1) The intelligent spiritual principle of polarity in opera- tion constitutes the true and Natural Law of Selection.
(2) Evolution is progress by intelligent affinities and not by blind physical compulsions.
(3) Evolution is a race as between the intelligently strong and the intelligently weak.
(4) The Natural Law of Selection conserves the survival of the intelligently fittest.
Science holds further, that the government of inorganic mat- ter and of organic life is conducted under two aspects, viz.:
(1) Under a universal principle of intelligence which con- serves the refinement of matter, the increase of vibratory action and the improvement of physical organisms.
(2) Under an individual principle of intelligence which con- serves the increase and persistence of individual intelligence and governs the individual and ethical relations of intelligent beings.
The universal principle governing the general operations of
THE NATURAL LAW OF SELECTION. 167
all material substances may, therefore, be said to demonstrate the mathematics of evolution.
For example: The involuntary unions and combinations of particles of frozen moisture into the perfect snow crystal illus- trate the mathematical intelligence of Nature.
On the contrary, the individual principle governing the par- ticular operations and the ethical relations of organic life, may be said to demonstrate the Harmonics of Nature..
For example: The love relations of man and woman illus- trate the voluntary and individual operations of intelligence.
By general operations of Nature is meant the involuntary response of mineral, vegetable and animal substance, to the in- telligent demands of the universal principle of polarity.
By particular operations of organized life are meant the vol- untary relations of individual intelligences ; relations impelled by an innate independent and self-operated Will and Desire.
For example: A male animal (and sometimes a man) will attack a rival and force him to relinquish his suit for the favor of some particular female animal (or woman, as the case may be). Here is the direct operation of an individualized and intelligent will which directly serves the individual interests of that par- ticular male animal (or man). Or, again, the same principle is illustrated when a female animal, or woman, bestows her favor upon the victor. Here is the direct operation of an individual and intelligent desire which directly serves the individual inter- ests of that particular female animal or woman.
While it is the general intelligence of Nature that impels male and female to unite, it is the individual intelligence of or- ganic life which establishes the law of Individual Preference and equips the particular entity to seek and attain relations which conserve the individual Will and Desire.
The attempt to define intelligence, other than the governing principle in Nature, would amount to an absurdity. The finite mind can neither grasp nor define ultimates. Neither on this side of life nor on the other has the finite thus far comprehended the
168 HARMONICS OF EVOLUTION.
Infinite, either as to matter, motion, life, intelligence or love. Science is forced to rest upon the principle itself. It can do no more than occupy itself with demonstration and classification of phenomena which go to prove the principle. The finite mind thus far is forced to content itself with the fact that all operations of Nature are intelligent, whether guided by a general principle of intelligence or by an individual intelligent Will and Desire.
This being true, science holds that no adequate theory of evolution can ignore intelligence, either in its general or its indi- vidual aspect.
This position directly contravenes physical science. Not Darwin alone, but almost the entire line of authorities in that school, ignores these most patent of all facts in Nature, viz., the manifestation of a general intelligence in every operation of inor- ganic nature, and the phenomenon of an individualized intelli- gence rising out of those general processes of inorganic nature.
This complete overlooking of so self-evident a principle is the one error of modern science which, to the trained student of Na- ture, appears as "inexplicable." To account for the universe as the outcome of blind mechanical energies, and to account for hu- man intelligence as a result of blind physical forces, do not neces- sarily indicate lack of intelligence. They do, however, indicate intelligence restricted and confined to very narrow limits. Pessi- mistic philosophy is the inevitable result of science which, ignor- ing the fundamental phenomena of intelligence, confines itself to the study of bald physical fact.
In this particular the higher science marks a new era in scien- tific declaration. It puts aside those unsatisfactory theories of mechanical principles and blind forces, and gives to intelligence a more rational explanation of itself.
It declares, instead, upon carefully demonstrated facts of Na- ture, that evolution is progress by and through intelligent prin- ciples, universal and individual.
This being true, science accepts intelligence as the primary
THE NATURAL LAW OF SELECTION. 169
cause of all that is, and not as a recent and incidental result of a digestive apparatus.
Finite science does not hold itself competent to account for intelligence. It does claim, however, that science is able to point out the general evidences of intelligence. It is also able to trace the processes of individualizing intelligence by means of im- proved physical organisms. The evolution of intelligence is a more marvelous process than the evolution of the physical body. In the eyes of the true scientist (one who knows the persistence of intelligence after physical death) the physical body can never appear to be more than the instrument which persistent intelli- gence slowly fashions and perfects for its uses on the physical plane.
Some one has said : "Intelligence sleeps in the stone, dreams in the animal, wakens in man." The case of Nature had been more fully stated had it been said: "Intelligence sleeps in the stone, dreams in the plant, wakens in the animal and acts in man."
Intelligence, however, whether manifested in the involuntary activities of material substance, or in the independent activities of intelligent entities, remains as the ultimate mystery in Nature. This is the principle which rationalism names "law." This is the principle which intuition calls "God."
This, indeed, is the "Great Unknown," both to finite science and to finite faith.
Physical science, it will be remembered, bases the evolution of man, physically and mentally, upon the struggle for nutrition in the midst of a hostile environment.
It will be recalled that a new moral philosophy, based upon this theory, claims that man, as a moral being, is the result of the struggle of the female for reproduction in the midst of a hostile environment.
Upon such assumptions physical science declares its natural law of selection.
The student of Nature, however, who analyzes life and en- counters intelligence in two worlds, is in a position to reject the
170 HARMONICS OF EVOLUTION.
theory of evolution by non-intelligence. He discovers and dem- onstrates those facts and principles which disprove such assump- tions.
Nature, it is found, embraces other principles than mechan- ical ones, other forces than blind physical forces, other methods than compulsions, and other purposes than the preservation of species or the creation of a family. Evolution is something more than a battle of the strong against the weak. There is an- other struggle than the struggle for nutrition or the struggle for reproduction. Sex plays a higher role than the mere perpetua- tion of species. Living is more than feeding and breeding, and the intelligent individual has a nobler destiny than "rearing the largest number of healthy progeny."
On the contrary, it is demonstrated that those other and highest principles in Nature are intelligent principles, those other forces are spiritual and psychical forces, those other methods are co-operative, those other and higher purposes are intelligent and beneficent in character. Demonstration of these highest prin- ciples, forces, methods and purposes, enables the higher science to lay down the Natural Law of Selection and to point to the survival of the intelligently fittest as the final outcome of evolu- tion.
The fundamental principle in Nature is an intelligent prin- ciple of fulfillment, viz., a principle of equalization of forces through vibratory correspondences. The phenomenon of polar- ity, or the co-operation of the positive and receptive powers in Nature, constitutes the expression of this universal principle.
For illustration: That principle which impels one physical particle to seek vibratory correspondence in another particle of opposite polarity, must be recognized in science as an intelligent principle. The act of the atoms is an intelligent act. In this case, however, the intelligence is not an individual intelligence residing in the atom. It is, instead, that general intelligence which physical science is content to name "Natural Law."
The phenomenon of love between two rational beings, man
THE NATURAL LAW OF SELECTION. I71
and woman, constitutes an expression of the individual prin- ciple of intelligence as well as the involuntary effects of the uni- versal principle.
For illustration: That principle which impels one rational being to voluntarily seek correspondence in another such being of opposite polarity, must be recognized as an act of independent, individual intelligence. In this case the impelling principle re- sides in the individual, not merely in the universal principle which governs unconscious physical substance.
The dawn of organic sex marks that stage of evolution where general intelligence enters upon the process of individualizing intelligence. Animal life, from its lowest to its highest expres- sion, stands as indisputable proof of the struggle of general in- telligence for an individual expression.
Human life illustrates the highest achievement of that pur- pose. The universal intelligent principle of polarity first raises the individual product to the point of an individual, self-operating intelligence. After this, individual intelligence raises itself by individual efforts which directly assist Nature in the general pur- pose it has in view for the individual.
Thus, universal intelligence and individual intelligence are working out the universal purpose of Nature and the particular purpose of the individual. Any other interpretation of Nature, of life and of man, libels Nature and stultifies intelligence.
Physical science demonstrates that this planet of ours was once a shapeless mass of fiery gases revolving in space.
It is the triumph of the spectroscope, under the light of scien- tific intelligence, to have demonstrated to an absolute certainty that there are in existence at this moment other immense sources of gaseous substance from which planets are evolved.
When the human mind looks out upon this world alone, re- calling the history which science unfolds, it becomes an abso- lute impossibility to define this stupendous generation of phys- ical, spiritual and psychical phenomena as an efflorescence of blind and non-intelligent forces.
172 HARMONICS OF EVOLUTION.
The evolution of man rests upon that principle in Nature which impels intelligent entities to select their vibratory affini- ties. The individual, be it understood, makes such selections, not that he may further Nature's general purposes, but because he is so impelled through the expectation of and desire for an individual and ethical self-content. In this intelligent principle of co-operation and fulfillment the higher science finds its Natural Law of Selection.
This being true, organic sex represents this principle in opera- tion. It follows, therefore, that the individual co-operations of male and female and of man and woman constitute the true principle of natural selection in the kingdom of individual in- telligences.
From what has already been said concerning this intelligent principle of polarity by way of the refinement of matter, the in- crease of vibratory action and the ascent of life, the reader is prepared to hear that evolution means progress by intelligent affinities, instead of progress by blind physical compulsions. The question may be asked, What are the evidences which show that the evolution of man is conducted by a law of selection through affinities rather than of selection by compulsion? It may also be asked, What are the evidences that sex selection is voluntary se- lection by intelligent affinities, rather than compulsory selections in answer to a biological need?
The discussion of the law of polarity has already covered the intelligent operations of the lower kingdoms of mineral and plant. It has already been explained how evolution is main- tained in the lower kingdoms by the impulse of the individual en- tity seeking vibratory correspondence in another entity of oppo- site polarity. It has already been explained how these operations, conducted by the general principle of affinity, yet intelligently conserve the evolution of an organized and self-operating indi- vidual intelligence.
What we now have to deal with is the particular principle which directly governs the evolution of man from the early
THE NATURAL LAW OF SELECTION. 173
reaches of organic life. Science is now called to explain, not merely the involuntary affinities of matter governed by the uni- versal principle of intelligence, but the voluntary affinities of or- ganic life governed by the principle of individual intelligence.
With the generation of physical life and the dawn of organic and individual intelligence, there arises a distinctly new class and order of phenomena. When Nature, under its general prin- ciple, succeeds in evolving a sufficiently delicate physical organ- ism, the phenomenon of sensation is evoked. This is the first distinct evidence of an individual intelligence. The capacity for sensation is evidence of a certain character of intelligence which does not reside in a stone or a plant. This is, as it were, a point of intelligence, individual to that particular living entity, which experiences sensation.
The cruder the physical organism the poorer the instrument for the uses of intelligence. In consequence, the duller are the sensations and the fainter the perceptions. Evolution appears under one general aspect of intelligence until the generation of individual intelligence takes place. Until individual sensation, perception and volition obtain, there is no apparent distinction as between the operations of the general principle of polarity and the response of the individual to that principle. That is to say, all the operations of individuals below the point of a self-operat- ing intelligence appear as purely automatic. They appear as ac- tivities controlled by intelligence. When, however, Nature suc- ceeds in evolving an organic intelligence, of even the meanest* capacities, evolution proceeds by a distinctly double process, viz.:
(1) Under the general guidance of the universal and intelli- gent principle of affinity.
(2) By the direct impulse of the individual and intelligent Will and Desire of an organic entity.
Until this stage is reached the phenomena of Nature appear simply as mathematical and involuntary results worked out under intelligent direction. After this the higher phenomena of life
174 HARMONICS OF EVOLUTION.
consist in ethical effects, to which individual intelligences volun- tarily give rise. From this stage science must deal with proc- esses and effects which are individual and ethical, as well as those which are universal and mathematical.
From this period, we may very properly say, begins the evo- lution of man, an individualized intelligence, inhabiting and oper- ating two material bodies.
The Natural Law of Selection rests upon that principle which impels this individual intelligence to exercise its individual will and desire to secure its own ethical content. The individual in- telligence, like the individual atom, seeks self-adjustment, pri- marily, through affinities with another individual. The individ- ual intelligence, therefore, is impelled to such union by an indi- vidual will and desire, as well as by the involuntary impulses due to the general law of correspondence in material substances. While the general law is taking care of the chemical affinities, the individual intelligence is seeking those ethical conditions which satisfy the individual needs and requirements of intelligence.
Nature demonstrates that the higher activities and relations of intelligent life are governed by an independent Will and Desire, rather than by the general mathematical principle. The powers of sensation and volition raise the entity from automatic to inde- pendent action. Everything in Nature that has attained to this point, moves and acts thereafter upon an innate principle of se- lection which conserves that particular entity alone.
This, therefore, becomes the true and Natural Law of Selec- tion, in that it is the one and only principle which impels but does not compel intelligence to action.
The most unfortunate effects of Darwinian doctrine are due to his repeated declaration of a compulsory struggle for nutrition, and therefore, a compulsory law of selection. He says, it will be remembered, that "the struggle for nutrition compels natural selection," etc. That very statement, the basis of his doctrine, embraces a contradiction, that is, if we interpret the words "com- pel" and "natural" in their usual and accepted sense. To be con-
THE NATURAL LAW OF SELECTION. 175
sistent with his fundamental theory, that everything improves and progresses under physical compulsion, Darwin includes sex se- lection in the category of "compulsions."
Darwin's error is due to his inability to discriminate between general necessities, imposed by general environment, and the particular powers of intelligent entities operating within that environment. He fails to observe that whenever and wherever the really voluntary, and therefore Natural Selection of intelli- gence is interfered with, degeneracy occurs. He fails to perceive that the voluntary will and desire of an individual intelligence govern acts or selections which are voluntary. He fails to per- ceive that anything and everything done in accordance with an innate will and desire is an act impelled and not compelled- Each act is, therefore, a voluntary act and not a compulsion.
Darwin rightly conceives that improvements and higher types may be obtained by cross-breeding. To his mind, however, that improvement rests wholly upon the selected physical conditions. In reality, such improvement is due, primarily, to the judicious crossing or assimilation of intelligences. This principle, diffi- cult to prove in animal life, is clearly demonstrable in human society. Any arbitrary system of sex selection which ignores the natural spiritual law of selection means degeneracy.
For example: It is the commonest fact of history that the arbitrary marriages made in the interests of royalty invite de- terioration and degeneracy to that particular line. Scientifically and philosophically, such marriages are the lowest types known to human society, viz., marriage in the interest of fictitious posi- tion which ignores physical, spiritual and psychical fitness. Mar- riage brought about by purely physical passion is even less ig- noble, since here, at least, is a temporary physical affinity.
If Darwin's idea of marriage, based upon physical fitness alone, could be enforced, the moral degeneracy of the race would result. We would have, instead, fine animals in human bodies. Physical passion would increase, but love would wane. The marriage system, or the individual marriage, which ignores either
I?6 HARMONICS OF EVOLUTION.
the general principle of affinity in Nature or the individual will and desire of the intelligence, means moral degeneration to a nation or to an individual.
China and Japan are among the pitiful examples of an arbi- trary interference with the intelligent and Natural Law of Se- lection.
It is admitted that the marriage of the diseased and delicate does entail weakness and suffering upon offspring. That mis- fortune, however, could not be compared with the moral degener- acy that would flow from the attempt to enforce marriage among the physically strong by arbitrary selection of individual pairs. It is man alone, in his individual pride of intelligence, that has ever conceived or executed a really compulsory law of selection. It is man alone who introduces hostilities into evolutionary proc- esses.
From all that has been said, it must now be understood that the co-operations of sex constitute the Natural Law of Selec- tion, under which individual intelligence seeks self-satisfaction. The voluntary will and voluntary desire of a masculine and a feminine entity for each other, constitute the primary factors and causes of the evolution of man.
Physical science lays down a struggle for nutrition and a prin- ciple of hostility as the basis of evolution. The higher science discovers in Nature another and a higher struggle, as well as another and a higher principle. Natural Science discovers and demonstrates a struggle of organic intelligence for an individual persistence and an individual and ethical satisfaction. This su- preme struggle of intelligence for individual expression, satisfac- tion and persistence, is conducted, primarily, through sex co-op- erations, or through those natural selections induced by vibra- tory correspondences with that which is of an opposite polarity. Universally the normal individual seeks self-adjustment, pri- marily, in another individual of opposite polarity. Universally, therefore, the development of the individual rests, primarily, upon the relations it effects with its polar affinities. All of this means
THE NATURAL LAW OF SELECTION. 177
that individual development is, primarily, a question of sex and sex selection.
The deductions of physical science as to sex rest entirely upon the study of physical nature, from protoplasm to man. The deductions of the higher science rest upon the study of phys- ical matter, spiritual matter and intelligence, in their combined operations, from protoplasm to man, physically embodied and physically disembodied.
These are deductions which universally consider the corre- lation of forces upon both planes. They rest upon investigation and analysis of physical functions, spiritual principles and psychical activities. By means and methods, not as yet generally recognized as scientific, it is found that everything, from proto- plasm to man, has its spiritual duplicate or pattern. It is dis- covered further, that the principle of intelligence resides, pri- marily, in the spiritual part. It does not matter whether that in- telligence appears as general or individual intelligence.
As already explained, the Life Elements are dual in character, being positively and receptively conditioned in their relation to each other. That is to say, the dual energies of any one of the Life Elements are positive and receptive to each other, or mutu- ally dependent in their operations.
When the Spiritual Life Element is inducted into matter it does something more than generate life. It causes living proto- plasm to separate into two departments which diverge more and more from the initial state. The one department is charged with positive, generative, male energy. The other is charged with reproductive, or receptive, feminine energy. Organic sex thus represents the inherent energies of the Spiritual Life Element, and is, therefore, a spiritual principle instead of a physical func- tion.
The general principle of intelligence in Nature causes proto- plasm to co-operate until by such co-operation is evolved a phys- ical organism that admits of an individual expression. Sex is, therefore, an intelligent spiritual relation manifesting through
12
178 HARMONICS OF EVOLUTION.
physical co-operations, instead of a moral phenomenon evolved by the automatic operations of the digestive and generative or- gans. The gradual individualizing of intelligence through lower forms would admit of volumes in illustration. The facts, how- ever, germain to this subject, relate, first, to Nature's struggle to improve the physical instrument of intelligence, and second, to the struggle of individual intelligence to satisfy itself through that organism.
This intelligent struggle of Nature and this struggle of in- dividual intelligence are as well defined, from oyster intelligence to ape intelligence, as are the improvements in the form, functions and capacities of the physical body.
Thus, evolution by intelligence and the self-evolution of in- telligence rest, primarily, upon the sex principle. Physical sex union thus represents the struggle of intelligent entities for spir- itual as well as for physical union. This being true, human marriage represents spiritual relations with spiritual conse- quences, as well as physical relations with physical consequences. Physical paternity and maternity, therefore, represent an effort for individual adjustment, rather than an effort for reproduction. Thus, the Natural Law of Selection is disclosed as a series of intelligent co-operations, rather than a series of blind compul- sions. It is seen as a system of fulfillments, instead of a system of sacrifices. It is survival of the intelligently fittest, rather than of the physically fittest. It is, in brief, the evolution of intelli- gence by way of vibratory correspondences and ethical satisfac- tions, rather than by physical compulsions and physical sacri- fices.
The advanced student, familiar with the spirit of matter, knows that both the vital and the intelligent powers reside, pri- marily, in the spirit. He knows that the forces which integrate physical material are, primarily, spiritual forces; that physical functions express spiritual energies, and that physical relations are spiritual relations, conserving the development of intelligent life.
Even the demands for physical nutrition are, primarily, spir-
THE NATURAL LAW OF SELECTION. 179
itual demands. Indeed, all appetites and passions called phys- ical are, primarily, spiritual requirements of intelligence seeking self-satisfaction through physical conditions.
This reading of Nature throws new light upon the demand for nutrition and the capacity for reproduction which inhere in protoplasm. It throws a new light upon sex which appears with the dawn of life itself. Under this reading of Nature the physical functions and the physical activities of intelligent life are rele- gated to their proper place in the evolutionary scheme. In the light of this struggle of intelligence, the struggle for nutrition and the struggle for reproduction fall into line, the one as a duty incidental to the body, the other as a duty incidental to the race. Both of these minor functions and activities are thus seen as mere conservers of intelligent life during its operations upon the physical plane.
With this understanding of the Natural .uaw of Selection, progress appears as a system of Harmonics. Nature is revealed as an overshadowing power, intelligent in operation and benefi- cent in intent. With this interpretation of sex, the union of two animals or of two humans represents, not merely a biological need, but an innate necessity of organic intelligence for an eth- ical self-content. The physical organs of sex thus become the mere instruments for the accomplishment of certain functions in- cident to physical life and earthly development. The male or- gans of generation represent the positive energies of the vital ele- ments, while the female organs of reproduction represent the receptive energies of the vital elements.
Physical science lays down its doctrine of sex honestly. Nev- ertheless, that doctrine is demoralizing in effect. Society can no more escape the penalty of a false philosophy than the individual can escape the penalties of his own ignorance. Ignorance is the root of all social evil, just as partial knowledge is the basis of in- tellectual controversy. Disputation lessens in an exact ratio with the definite knowledge brought to bear. Every new proved fact in Nature settles some sharp debate. Perhaps the oldest and
l8o HARMONICS OF EVOLUTION.
fiercest controversy ever waged by human intelligence covers the question of predestination and free will. To-day science declares that each combatant represents a true principle in Nature. The predestinarian stands for the principle of universal intelligence, while his adversary represents the principle of an individual free will and desire. Science demonstrates that the evolution of man is a result brought about by the selections of free-willed entities moving under immutable principles.
By free will is not meant free execution, nor even the im- mediate power of execution. What is meant is the fact of an internal, free choice or motive, or a natural, independent impulse to do or not to do a certain thing. A man desires, wills and uni- versally attempts to execute his individual desires and designs. This innate power of individual will constitutes the motor power in the self-evolution of intelligent beings. At every stage of be- ing, individual will and desire and individual efforts and execu- tions move upon and modify environment.
The desire to do and the will to execute are as characteristic of the worm, the fly, or the dog, as they are of man. It is the universal possession and operation of these intelligent capacities which refute the theory of evolution by physical feeding and breeding alone. Nature, on the contrary, shows that evolution is the gradual rise of a free-willed entity to a self-conscious and rational compliance with the demands of universal intelligence. The degree of development attained by an individual, a family or a race, depends upon the degree of intelligent compliance exer- cised as to these universal principles in Nature.
Physical science, as far as evolution is concerned, is com- mitted to the theory of predestination. That is to say, it pre- sents Nature as a series of fixed mechanical principles and hostile conditions which remorselessly move, first upon protoplasm, and lastly upon man. Engrossed with the physical evolution of species through the digestive organs, physical science continu- ally ignores individual intelligence and the individual impulses and objects of individual life. It fails to perceive that while Na-
THE NATURAL LAW OF SELECTION. l8l
ture is working out a general result of individualizing intelligence, the individual is striving for a particular result individual to itself. Engrossed with the study of physical processes of nutri- tion and reproduction, it ignores the intelligent operations and the ethical consequences which attach to the life of the individual consumer and reproducer.
The predestined extinction of individual intelligence is the fiat of a science which has not, as yet, discovered the spiritual side of Nature, nor perceived the evolution of intelligence.
Physical science fails to discriminate between the general operation of a universal principle of intelligence and the par- ticular selections of an individual intelligence. It perceives a general principle which apparently compels material substance to its activities. It fails, however, to perceive that it is an in- dividual will and desire of intelligent beings which shape and control the higher ethical activities of organic life.
For illustration: Physical science perceives that the primi- tive man is compelled to find nutrition if he would preserve his life. It does not, however, explain why the savage prefers one kind of food to another, nor how and why he deliberately sets out to secure it. By reason of a scarcity he may be temporarily com- pelled to eat less palatable food than he desires. This unpalatable food, however, sustains life and thus fulfills the demands of nutri- tion. But what course does this primitive man pursue? Does he continue to eat that which he does not individually desire? Does he submit to environment or does he seek to overcome it?
The history of human development answers this question.
That history is not simply a record of external conditions beating and buffeting a non-intelligent stomach into a civilized man. Instead, it is the history of crude intelligences pushing out, striving for, and achieving individual satisfactions through an individual force of will and desire.
Physical materialism entirely ignores that supreme capacity of individualized intelligence, viz., the power to contravene, defy and pervert those very principles intended by Nature to govern
182 HARMONICS OF EVOLUTION.
the physical, intellectual and moral development of the indi- vidual himself.
The higher science fully considers the universal principles in Nature. It considers the conditions and relations which arise by force of these principles and of external circumstance. It recognizes selections that are compulsory. It takes into account the facts of competition. It recognizes the sacrifices in human life. It does more than this, it recognizes also the universal principle of fulfillment through the general effects which flow from vibratory correspondences. It recognizes also the far- reaching effects of individual, intelligent forces which go to mod- ify and shape and change environment.
Science that has gone far enough to discriminate as to the forces in evolution, declares that the principle of harmony out- runs conditions of hostility. It declares that individual intelli- gence co-operates with general intelligence and that natural se- lections far outweigh, in force and effect, all unnatural selections or selections by compulsion. It finds, in brief, that enforced se- lections, made in the interests of nutrition and reproduction, are of little value in the higher evolution of man, as compared with the voluntary selections by affinity.
On the contrary, Nature discloses a struggle of intelligent life which far overshadows these lesser struggles of physical life. It discovers a purpose in Nature and life far more inspiring to the individual soul of man than the preservation of species or the creation of a family. In this supreme struggle of Nature science reads the past, analyzes the present and forecasts the future of man in the body by way of physical refinement, intellectual power and moral achievement.
It follows, therefore, that Natural Science presents to the world a new proposition. Darwin has said: "The (physical) struggle for nutrition compels natural selection with reproduc- tion as a consequence, entailing divergence of character and ex- termination of less improved species."
Nature, on the contrary, declares that the intelligent Spiritual
THE NATURAL LAW OF SELECTION. 183
Struggle for an Individual Self -Completion induces Natural Se- lection, with Reproduction as a consequence, entailing Divergence of Character and appearance of more improved Individuals and Species.
Familiarity with Nature over long periods of time enables the higher science to declare:
(1) Evolution is an intelligent scheme.
(2) Evolution is conducted under two principles of intelli- gence, the universal and the individual.
(3) The spiritual principle of polarity represents universal intelligence.
(4) The individual Will and Desire of organic beings repre- sent the principle of individual intelligence.
(5) The universal principle of intelligence evolves by its op- erations, individualized, or self-operating intelligences.
(6) The self-operating intelligence conducts its own evolu- tion along the lines laid out by Nature, viz., through vibratory correspondences between the positive and the receptive individ- uals.
(7) The intelligent spiritual principle of polarity foreshadows the true and Natural Law of Selection, viz., Selection by Af- finity.
(8) The individual struggle of organized intelligences for self-adjustment, constitutes the Natural Law of Selection in the evolution of man, viz., Selection by Intelligent Affinities.
(9) Evolution is a race between the intelligently strong and the intelligently weak.
(10) Evolution means Survival of the Intelligently Fittest, (n) The supreme struggle in Nature is the Struggle for
Completion.
(12) The object of universal intelligence is the Completion of an Individual.
(13) The purpose of the individual intelligence is Self-Com- pletion.