M. Letorneau sets forth what he terms the natural sex laws

of courtship in lower life. On the masculine side he names this phenomenon, "the law of battle." On the feminine side he finds a law of coquetry.
The reader will be able to perceive that this so-called mascu- line law of battle is something more than a law of courtship. It is, in fact, the masculine law of being. The battle between male animals during courtship is but another phase of the inherent struggle for supremacy or conquest by force, which universally obtains in masculine nature. In the law of coquetry he will as easily discern the purely feminine method of accomplishment, viz., by self-surrender, or the promise of self-surrender.
The author says:
(i) "It is especially among the gallinaceae that love inspires
3H HARMONICS OF EVOLUTION.
the males with warlike fury. In this order of birds nearly all the males are of bellicose temperament. Our barn-door cock is the type of the gallinaceae — vain, amorous, and courageous. Black cocks are also always ready for a fight, and their females quietly look on at their combats, and afterward reward the con- queror. We may observe analogous facts, only somewhat masked, in savage and even in civilized humanity."
(2) "Among fishes we begin already to observe another sexual law, at least as general as the law of coquetry, which Dar- win has called the law of battle. The males dispute with each other for the females, and must triumph over their rivals before obtaining them. Thus, whilst the female sticklebacks are very pacific, their males are of warlike humor, and engage in furious combats in their honor."
(3) "The higher we ascend in the animal kingdom the more frequent and more violent become two desires in the males — the desire of appearing beautiful, and that of driving away rivals."
(4) "The law of battle prevails among aquatic as well as land animals."
(5) "The combats of the male stags are celebrated. * * * Seals and male sperm-whales fight with equal fury, and so also do the males of the Greenland whale."
(6) "With birds, * * * the law of battle plays an im- portant part in sexual selection. * * * The male Canadian geese engage in combats which last more than half an hour; the vanquished sometimes returns to the charge, and the fight always takes place in an enclosed field, in the middle of a circle formed
by a band of the clan of which the rivals form a part."
*******
(i) "But however short may be their sexual career, one fact has been so generally observed Jn regard to many of them (in- sects), that it may be considered as the expression of a law — the law of coquetry. With the greater number of species that are slightly intelligent, the female refuses at first to yield to amorous caresses. However brief, for example, may be the life of butter-
NATURAL SCIENCE CORROBORATED.
flies, their pairing is not accomplished without preliminaries; the males court the females during entire hours, and for a butterfly hours are years."
"We can easily imagine that the coquetry of the females is more common among vertebrates."
(2) "The courage and jealousy of the male (bird), his efforts to charm the female by his beauty and the sweetness of his song, and finally, the coquetry of the female, who retreats and thus
throws oil on the fire."
*******
Physical science corroborates the higher science as to the existence of a law of individual preference in sex selection. This is the law which physical science terms "inexplicable," but which the higher science explains as an expression of vibratory corre- spondence between two intelligent entities.
Letorneau says:
(1) "The animal as well as the morally developed man is capable of individual preferences. He does not yield blindly and passively to sexual love."
(2) "Many vertebrate animals are capable of a really exclu- sive and jealous passion."
(3) "Man alone should have the privilege of introducing free choice into love. It is not so, however."
(4) "According to observers and readers, it is the female who is especially susceptible of sentimental selection. The male, even the male of birds, is more ardent than the female, * * * and thus generally accepts any femal*. This is the rule, but it is not without exceptions; thus, the male pheasant shows a singular aversion for certain hens."
(5) Darwin finds that, "amongst the long-tailed ducks some females have evidently a particular charm for the males;" also that, "the pigeon of the dovecote shows a strong aversion to the species modified by breeders, which he regards as deteriorated. Female pigeons occasionally show strong dislike to certain males without apparent cause. At other times a female pigeon, sud-
316 HARMONICS OF EVOLUTION.
denly forgetting the constancy of her species, abandons her old mate or legitimate spouse to fall violently in love with another male. In the same way peahens sometimes show a lovely attach- ment to a particular peacock."
(6) Letorneau says that "it is more especially females who introduce individual fancy into sexual love. They are subject to singular and inexplicable aversions. * * * Very peculiar fancies arise in the brains of birds. Thus we see birds of distinct species pairing, and this even in the wild state. These illegitimate unions have been observed between geese and barnacle geese, and between black grouse and pheasants."
Darwin relates a case of this kind of passion suddenly appear- ing in a wild duck. Mr. Hewit relating it says : "After breeding a couple of seasons with her own mallard, she at once shook him off on my placing a male pintail in the water. It was evi- dently a case of love at first sight, for she swam around the new comer caressingly, though he appeared evidently alarmed and averse to her overtures of affection. From that hour she forgot her old partner. Winter passed by, and the next spring the pin- tail seemed to have become a convert to her blandishments, for they nested and produced seven or eight young."
If physical science had made no other discovery in the line of spiritual principles than the law of individual preference, it had in this one phenomenon sufficient grounds for modifying its own theories. Except for this fact of individual preference, there had been no such thing as choice in sex selection. In that case, the blind instincts of a purely physical passion would have prevailed. One mate would have satisfied the biological need as well as an- other, and promiscuity would have been the natural law of selec- tion.
In this one phenomenon, then, an intelligent individual choice, is revealed that principle which establishes the sex relation as a spiritual relation, and raises sex love, even in animal life, above the biological need for reproduction. The introduction of an indi- vidual choice into the sex relation of intelligent creatures, quite
NATURAL SCIENCE CORROBORATED. 317
transforms the theory of life laid down by physical science.
Instead of a series of mechanical compulsions brought about by tyrannical instincts for reproduction, life is seen to be a series of individual selections brought about by an individual intelli- gence seeking its own self-content.
Natural Science holds that promiscuity is not a natural sex law. Physical science says:
(1) "Polygamy is common to mammals."
(2) "Mammals while less delicate than birds, are already on a moral level incompatible with promiscuity."
(3) "Polyandry does not appear to have been practiced among animals. Polygamy is the commonest form. Monogamy is com- mon and sometimes accompanied with so much devotion as to serve as an example to human monogamy."
The higher science holds that two animals as well as two humans may fulfill the universal law of vibratory correspondence. In such cases the love relation does not necessarily depend upon the degree of intelligence nor the evolutionary stage of animal life. It depends rather upon the degree of vibratory correspond- ence, that is, the degree of natural sympathy which obtains be- tween any two individuals.
Letorneau says:
(1) "There is no strict relation between the degree of intel- lectual development and the form of sexual union."
(2) "We find among animals temporary unions, at the close of which the male ceases absolutely to care for the female; but we also find, especially among birds, numbers of lasting unions, for which the word marriage is not too exalted."
(3) "But if polygamy is frequent of mammals, it is far from being the conjugal regime universally adopted; monogamy is common and is sometimes accompanied by so much devotion that it would serve as an example to human monogamists."
(4) "Nearly all rapacious animals, even the stupid vultures, are monogamous. The conjugal union of the bald-headed eagle appears even to last till the death of one of the partners. This
318 HARMONICS OF EVOLUTION.
H
is indeed monogamic and indissoluble marriage, though without legal restraint. Golden eagles live in couples and remain attached to each other for years without even changing their domicile. But these instances, honorable as they are, have nothing excep- tional in them; strong conjugal attachment is a sentiment com- mon to many birds."
(5) "Examples of wandering fancy are for most part rare among birds, the majority of whom are monogamous, and even far superior to most men in the matter of conjugal fidelity."
(6) "Birds especially are models of fidelity, constancy and devoted attachment."
(7) "Among many animal species sexual union induces dura- ble association having for its object the rearing of young. In nobility, delicacy and devotion, these unions do not yield prece- dence to many human unions."
At this point it would be of scientific interest to know by what rule or process the author arrived at the conclusion that these durable associations have for their "object the rearing of young," rather than the satisfaction and content of the individuals com- posing those unions.
The author says further that there is the same diversity in the habits of the monkey as in those of the human in conjugal relations. He says:
(8) "Some are polygamous, some are monogamous. The wanderoo of India has only one female and is faithful unto death."
Natural Science finds that bird life represents the greatest physical and spiritual refinement and the highest vibratory con- dition of the animal kingdom. This being true, the intelligence of bird life would sense, enjoy and express those finer and higher conditions more readily and more harmoniously than any other department of animal intelligence. Partial proof of these state- ments are the superior love nature of birds, their gift of music, and the fineness and delicacy of their flesh.
Physical science corroborates these deductions when it says: "But it is particularly among birds that the sentiment, or rather
NATURAL SCIENCE CORROBORATED. 319
the passion, of love breaks out with most force and even poetry." "But among animals, as well as men, love has more than one string to his bow. It is especially so with birds, who are the most amorous of vertebrates. They use several aesthetic means of attracting the female, such as beauty of plumage and the art of showing it, and also sweetness of song. Strength seems often to be quite set aside and the eye and ear are alone appealed to by the love stricken males. * * * Birds often assemble in large numbers to compete in beauty before pairing. The tetras cus- pido of Florida and the little grouse of Germany and Scandinavia do this. The latter have daily amorous assemblies, or cours d' amour, which are renewed every year in the month of May."
"Certain birds are not content with their natural ornaments, however brilliant these may be, but give the rein to their aesthetic desires in a way that might be termed human. * * * The palm is carried off by a bird of New Guinea, made known to us by M. O. Beccari. This bird of rare beauty, for it is a bird of Paradise, constructs a little conical hut to protect his amours, and in front of this he arranges a lawn, carpeted with moss, the green- ness of which he relieves by scattering on it various bright col- ored objects, such as berries, grains, flowers, pebbles and shells. More than this, when the flowers are faded, he takes great care to replace them by fresh ones, so that the eye may be always agreeably flattered. These curious constructions are solid, last- ing for several years, and probably serving for several birds. What we know of sexual unions among the lower human races suffices to show how much these birds excel men in sexual deli- cacy." * * * "Every one is aware that the melodious voice of many male birds furnishes them with a powerful means of seduction. Every spring our nightingales figure in true lyric tournaments/' etc., etc.
In bird life, more particularly, is ample proof of a sex love which entirely transcends the physical affinity or physical passion. Here also we find that conjugal love is the earlier and far more enduring bond than parental love.
320 HARMONICS OF EVOLUTION.
For example, Letorneau says:
"With the female Illinois parrot (Psittacus pertinax) widow- hood and death are synonymous, a circumstance rare enough in human species, yet of which birds give us more than one example. When, after some years of conjugal life, a wheatear happens to die, his companion hardly survives him a month. The male and female of the panurus are always perched side by side. When they fall asleep, one of them, generally the male, tenderly spreads its wing over the other. The death of one, says Brehm, is fatal to its companion. The couples of golden woodpeckers, of doves, etc., live in a perfect union, and in case of widowhood experience a violent and lasting grief. The male of a climbing woodpecker, having seen his mate die, tapped day and night with his beak to recall the absent one; then at length, discouraged and hopeless, he became silent, but never recovered his gaiety."
"These examples of a fidelity that stands every test, and of the religion of memory, although much more frequent in the unions of birds than in those of human beings, are not, however, the unfailing rule."
What do all these facts suggest? That the struggle for nutrition is the inspiration of existence, or that love is — even in a bird — essentially a biological need? Do they not, rather, directly refute such a theory?
Here in this lower world of intelligence is substantial evi- dence of the spiritual relation in sex, such evidence as puts to confusion the theories of physical materialism. Here, in the lower kingdom of life, and the lower kingdom of intelligence, Na- ture establishes a bond which transcends every physical require- ment, and endows even two birds with a love which obscures the procreative passion and ignores the claims of reproduction. By such widowhood and death it cannot be denied that bird love rises above the demands of physical nature. Thus, even a bird, in its ethical struggle for self-content, rises superior to the organs of digestion and reproduction. Indeed, by such fidelity and devotion, it defeats the claims of both.
NATURAL SCIENCE CORROBORATED. 321
Such a phenomenon is, indeed, "inexplicable," by all he rules of Darwinian philosophy. This is a fact, however, whkh must suggest that even the intelligence of a bird may be inspired by higher impulses and capacities than those which originate in the physical functions. With the demand for nutrition and the in- stinct for reproduction playing upon the intelligence of the bird, with nutrition at command, with other lovers at call — it is yet possible for even a bird to die of grief when the mate of its choice is gone.
If animal marriage can so far transcend the "requirements of the sex appetite," how vain to insist that human marriage has no other purpose than the regulation and satisfaction of an "imperi- ous sex appetite."
Since two birds may live in conjugal loyalty a lifetime, how illogical to declare that such love and fidelity in human marriage is a result of sex appetite, or a habit induced by heredity, or a mere affection induced by the mutual care of progeny. Since physical science tells us that a widowed bird may die of grief, how opposed to Nature is the theory that such grief in a human lover is an efflorescence of sex lust, and disappointment in that passion.
The time approaches when physical materialism must explain what it now terms "inexplicable," and "unfathomable," or it must cease to dogmatize concerning the purposes of life and the nature and causes of love. It must reserve its judgments on these points, or offer scientific explanation that shall appeal to reason and intuition, to the commonest facts of life, to common observation and experience, and finally, to the personal impulse and aspiration of mankind.
Until such time, the higher science rests its case upon the judgment of a man eminent in the school of physical science.
It is Alfred Russel Wallace who says : "That theory is most scientific which best explains the whole series of phenomena."
Mr. Drummond makes the strong point of his work through an oversight, or a misinterpretation of an actual fact, viz., he holds 21
322 HARMONICS OF EVOLUTION.
that the reproductive function is the source of love and of the moral order in human life. He assumes:
(1) That love comes into the world by reason of the en- forced physical sacrifices of the female half of life.
(2) That any higher love between husband and wife is rather an affection or a friendship growing out of the maternal and pa- ternal relations and obligations. In support of this position he says:
"Affection between male and female is a later, less funda- mental, and, in its beginnings, less essential growth; and long prior to its existence, and largely the condition of it, is the even more beautiful development whose progress we now have to trace (maternal love)."
"The basis of this new development is indeed far removed from the mutual relations of sex with sex. * * * But the Evolution of Love began long before these (the psychical rela- tions of husband and wife) were established."
Mr. Drummond says further: "The idea that the existence of sex accounts for love is not true." And also : "Love for chil- dren is always an a priori and stronger thing than love between father and mother. * * * In lower nature, as a simple fact, male and female do not love one another; and in the lower reaches of Human Nature, husband and wife do not love one another."
Thus, from the moralist's point of view, sex plays but an in- cidental part in the evolution of love. This means that love be- tween man and woman is not the cause, but a result, of repro- duction; that the male half of life in lower nature is not susceptible to love. According to this philosophy, even man learns to love woman only through and by the care of, and con- tact with, his offspring.
To one familiar with the love relation and the conjugal habits of animals, as well as humans, this appears to be a very curious statement.
Physical science clearly establishes the direct contrary to be
NATURAL SCIENCE CORROBORATED. 323
the truth. A single quotation from Letorneau serves to show the error into which Mr. Drummond is led by his zeal. This authority says: "As a matter of fact, both with birds and other animals, the paternal or maternal sentiment hardly lasts longer than the rearing time. When once the young are full grown, the parents no longer distinguish them from strangers of their own species, and it is thus even with monogamic species, when the conjugal tie is lifelong; the marriage alone endures, but the family is intermittent and renewed with every brood. We may remark that it is almost the same with certain human races of low development."
If this statement means anything, it is that parental love is a later development than is love between husband and wife.
Whenever and wherever the moralist is forced to consider sex at length, he unconsciously exalts the very principle in sex that his main argument undertakes to deny.
For instance, after hundreds of pages devoted to proving that sex is nothing but a physical device for reproduction, Mr. Drummond is yet impelled to say of man and woman: "With the initial impulses of their sex strengthened by the different life-routine to which each led, these two forces ran their course through history, determining by their ceaseless reactions the order and progress of the world, or when wrongly balanced, its disorder and decay. According to evolutional philosophy there are three great marks or necessities of all true development — Aggregation, or the massing of things; Differentiation, or the varying of things; and Integration, or the reuniting of things into higher wholes. All these processes are brought about by sex more perfectly than by any other factor known. From a careful study of this one phenomenon, science could almost de- cide that Evolution was the object of Nature, and that Altruism was the object of Evolution."
This inconsistency with the main body of his argument, is, however, consistent with the general inconsistency of "The As- cent of Man."
324 HARMONICS OF EVOLUTION.
Again, for example, here is a large volume intended to prove that "man progresses, not by any innate energies of protoplasmic cells, but, solely by feeding and reinforcement from without." In the general summing up of this purely .materialistic theory, the author is led to say: "If anything is to be implied it is not that spiritual energies are physical, but that physical energies are spiritual. * * * The roots of a tree may rise from what we call a physical world; the leaves may be bathed by physical atoms; even the energy of the tree may be solar energy, but the tree is itself. The tree is a Thought, a unity, a rational pur- poseful whole; the 'matter' is but the medium of their expres- sion. Call it all — matter, energy, tree — a physical production, and have we yet touched its ultimate reality? Are we quite sure that what we call a physical world is, after all, a physical world?"
After writing hundreds of pages to show that "Love comes into the world at the point of the sword," the moralist enjoys that vision of the natural love principle which the writer has already quoted in full in another chapter. In this vision of the universal law of affinity, Mr. Drummond admits that, "Neither here nor anywhere have we any knowledge whatever of what is meant by Attraction and Affinity." What he says that is es- pecially interesting in this connection, is that, "Here we are in the presence of that which is metaphysical, that which bars the way imperiously to materialistic interpretations of this world."
It will be remembered that Mr. Drummond started out to prove that, "Everything in the moral world has a physical basis." He is now, by a peculiar retrograde method, seeking to show that everything physical has a spiritual or metaphysical basis.
It will also be recalled, that he has formulated his moral phi- losophy, up to this point, without reference to the laws and prin- ciples which govern inorganic substance. He is finally, however, and almost as an after-thought, attracted to the principle of af- finity which governs the inorganic kingdom.
What he says of attraction and affinity in the inorganic world, has been quoted fully in Chapter VIII. By referring back to
NATURAL SCIENCE CORROBORATED. 325
this extract from his chapter on Involution, the reader will be able to form a fairly accurate judgment as to the logic of his work.
It will be seen that the moralist assumes:
(1) That the chemical activities of senseless atoms are gov- erned by a metaphysical principle, while the ethical activities of rational human beings are governed by physical functions.
(2) That the union of two atoms illustrates a metaphysical affinity, while the marriage of two humans is based upon a phys- ical passion.
(3) That centers of attraction in the mineral world are formed by reason of metaphysical affinities, while in the human world, centers of attraction are formed by physical compulsions and physical sacrifices.
(4) That there is an overshadowing principle of co-operation in inorganic Nature, but, "The training of humanity is under a compulsory act."
Nature, however, clearly demonstrates:
(1) That not only the chemical activities of atoms, but the ethical activities of men, are governed by a metaphysical or spirit- ual principle.
(2) That not only the union of two atoms, but the marriage of two human beings, represents a metaphysical or spiritual af- finity.
(3) That centers of attraction in every kingdom, from atom to man, are expressions of a metaphysical or spiritual affinity which tends to equalize positive and receptive energy.
(4) That there is an overshadowing spiritual principle of co-operation or love in the development of human relations, as well as a metaphysical affinity in the aggregation of mineral atoms.
This new moral philosophy confesses that our solid earth was formed by metaphysical attractions and readjustments of indi- vidual atoms, which at last solidly combine "in the order of their affinities." At the same time it holds, that human morality has
326 HARMONICS OF EVOLUTION.
been forced upon the world by the physical coercions and com- pulsions of the individual female.
Nature, however, clearly demonstrates that, not only the solid earth, but a spiritually organized humanity is the response to the same metaphysical affinity.
While Mr. Drummond holds that chemical compounds repre- sent super-physical affinities, he assumes that social harmonics are compelled by physical functions.
Nature, however, in its highest, as well as its lowest king- dom, demonstrates its spiritual basis. It demonstrates that so- cial compacts, as well as chemical compounds, are expressions of the same general principle.
In brief, this new moral philosophy finds the inorganic world governed by metaphysical affinity, while the organic, sentient, intelligent and moral world is governed by physical compulsions. It claims metaphysical causation for chemical affinity, and phys- ical causation for human affinity. In its last analysis, it declares that the bond which unites a positive atom to a negative atom is, primarily, metaphysical, while that which binds two intelligent souls is, primarily, a physical passion.
The reader can determine for himself the weight of such argu- ment and speculation.
Love has a natural pathway from chemical affinity to psy- chical affinity. That pathway is an ever ascending scale of vi- bratory correspondences, known as chemical affinity, physical passion, spiritual sympathy, and intellectual companionship.
Deep down in the under world of senseless matter, the divided forces of Nature rush together, seeking equilibrium through vi- bratory correspondences. Each individual atom is engaged in this struggle for its own completion. Impelled by the intelligent spiritual principle of affinity, each seeks its polar opposite. All unions of atoms are, primarily, individual unions of atoms oppo- sitely polarized. All effects are therefore, primarily, individual effects. Perfect vibratory correspondence between two atoms means an indissoluble union. All chemical compounds depend
NATURAL SCIENCE CORROBORATED. 327
upon this primary necessity, effort, and purpose of individual atoms.
Gems (notably the diamond) illustrate the highest harmonics in the mineral kingdom. This means that the atoms of which a gem is composed, being so fine in particle and rapid in vibra- tion, unite indissolubly with their polar affinities. The visible effect of this harmonic arrangement of refined physical matter is a material union remarkable for its molecular activity and for its solidity, durability, transparency and beauty.
A physical scientist aptly characterizes the diamond as being "alive," so rapidly do its particles move upon one another. The diamond is the highest expression of positive and receptive en- ergy in the mineral world and represents an unconscious struggle of individual atoms for individual equilibrium. The gem may, therefore, as a whole, be regarded as the offspring of electro- magnetic energies, and an incident in the struggle made by the individuals composing the entire stone.
The diamond, by its close affinities, intense vibratory action and indissoluble union, illustrates the true principle of marriage. By its crystallizations, reproduction is faintly foreshadowed.
Through vegetable life runs the same principle. Here, how- ever, the energies of individual particles are reinforced and ac- celerated by the energies of another element, the vito-chemical life element. Attraction and affinity remain the same in prin- ciple, but are differentiated in essence and effect. Vito-chemical life generates living organisms which involuntarily draw and feed upon the universal elements. At the basis of all organization, however, are the same efforts of individual particles for vibratory correspondence. Individual unions, thus become the center of all vegetable growth. All changes and effects are, therefore, primarily, individual changes and effects.
Flowers in the vegetable kingdom, like gems in the mineral, illustrate the highest possibilities of that kingdom, by way of material refinement and rapid vibration.
Thus, even in the vegetable world, reproduction is an efflo-
328 HARMONICS OF EVOLUTION.
rescence and incident in the individual struggle for equilibrium.
Animal life repeats the principle, processes and effects of the lower kingdoms, but with the reinforcements of another element, viz., the spiritual life element. While the same general principle continues to guide Nature's activities, the individualized intelli- gence supplements Nature by the individual effort for self-com- pletion. Here, individual intelligence reinforces the involuntary chemical activities, by its own conscious effort for self-satisfac- tion. In this kingdom, the cleavage of positive and receptive energies is still further accentuated. There are now distinctly, male and female cells, organisms and entities. The sex principle is expressed with increased particularity.
Here, as below, Nature's divided forces rush together, seek- ing equilibrium between positive and receptive energies. That universal impulse is now, however, a matter of conscious indi- vidual impulse. Upon this impulse and effort of the individual all evolution depends. Reproduction and species both depend upon this initial impulse of individuals.
Impelled by the energies of all the elements they represent, animals rush together with a force and intensity which are well characterized as animal passion. That effort expresses itself upon the physical side as passion, upon the spiritual side as love, and in its ethical sense as content. The force and intensity of animal passion induce procreation. The seeds of life, generated by positive masculine force, are nourished and matured by the absorbing feminine energies. Thus, reproduction, even in the animal kingdom, is an efflorescence or incident in the greater struggle for self-completion. Animals live their lives, not in the struggle to reproduce, but in an effort to obtain and main- tain those conditions and relations which are, in effect, self-con- tent.
Even in animal life Nature's first command is not reproduc- tion. On the contrary, here as elsewhere, Nature's first injunc- tion is to seek harmony.
Animal passion, in its scientific aspect, represents that strug-
NATURAL SCIENCE CORROBORATED.
gle of intelligence for individual expression and satisfaction, which finally perfects the physical body. This, indeed, appears to have been the supreme task set by Nature for the lower king- dom of intelligent life.
Human life is but a loftier life conducted upon the same gen- eral principle. Animal passion has finished its especial labors. It has perfected the physical instrument of intelligence. It has opened the doors to a higher life. The energies, powers and capacities of the highest soul element are super-added to that which has already been accomplished.
The sex principle is still more clearly defined. Sex special- ization is immeasurably increased. It is improved in form and increased in complexity and capacity. It remains, however, the same in principle. The male has become the man, the female has become woman. To animal intelligence has been added psychical intelligence.
Here, as in the lower kingdom, the sex cleavage and sex affinity obtain. Men and women seek one another in terms of every vital element. To chemical affinity is added conscious animal passion. To animal passion is added the self-conscious needs of the soul. Though susceptible to, and influenced by, all of the elements of lower nature, the evolution of man and woman is really dominated by the superior energies of the in- telligent soul.
Moved by the self-conscious will and desire of the soul, as well as by the impulses of the body, man and woman seek each other with the intensity and fervor of both a physical and psy- chical nature. In conformity to natural law, however, the cor^ respondence sought is one which shall satisfy the highest ele- ment rather than the lowest. In this struggle of the soul for its own adjustment the impulse of men and women would be to unite, separate, and reunite, until that satisfaction should be found. Because of the soul's necessities individual choice is more sharply accentuated in human life. The physical relation, though a legitimate part of life, is below the level of the soul's necessities.
330 HARMONICS OF EVOLUTION.
In human life we have, therefore, in addition to the animal im- pulses, an intelligent soul seeking adjustment through physical conditions.
This effort for self-adjustment induces marriage in its many forms, and varying conditions. The force and intensity of this human will and desire govern procreation. The struggle for self-completion induces unions which generate physical life. Men and women seek one another in marriage with the single motive of an individual and ethical satisfaction, and not for the sake of reproduction nor the improvement of the family nor the preservation of species.
Children are therefore the efflorescence, or incidents, of the struggle for self-completion.
The completion of the individual upon the higher plane, as well as the lower, involves, primarily, the perfect relation of man and woman; that is to say, a human marriage which represents a perfect correspondence, physically, spiritually and psychically. Such a marriage would scientifically be defined as a perfect hu- man harmonic.
Thus, a science which takes into account the spiritual side of Nature and the psychical element in man, finds a very definite and scientific pathway for love. This pathway is that supreme principle which impels every material entity, and every intelligent entity materially embodied, to seek correspondence in another like entity of opposite polarity.
Nature thus viewed, discloses a love principle which solidifies matter, evolves vegetation, generates animal life and inspires human intelligence to its higher intellectual and moral develop- ment. Love thus analyzed, rests upon an infinite series of har- monics, ranging all the way from the chemical affinity of mineral atoms to the psychical affinity of intelligent souls. The ascent of the individual is, therefore, through the simultaneous ascent of matter, life, intelligence and love.
The completion of an individual involves every principle, property, element and function of Nature. The ascent of the in-
NATURAL SCIENCE CORROBORATED. 331
dividual from the senseless atom to the self-conscious soul, may be considered in its several lines of development, viz.:
(1) As the ascent of matter and motion, meaning that vibra- tory process which refines matter and increases its vibratory ac- tion.
(2) As the ascent of life through those successive contacts of physical matter with the universal life elements.
(3) As the ascent of intelligence through gradual improve- ment of the physical and spiritual instruments intended for the uses of intelligence.
(4) As the ascent of love through increased harmonics be- tween individual intelligences.
(5) The ascent of happiness through the increased effects which accrue to individual intelligence by reason of these corre- spondences and harmonics.
Thus it is, that the deductions of Natural Science form the basis of a new philosophy of life which is at once consistent with the universal law of motion and number, with the functions of physical nature, with the operations of intelligence, and with the activities of love.
Thus, evolution is something more than a preservation of species, or the improvement of a family. On the contrary, evo- lution is a universal scheme, primarily seeking the completion of the individual.
The object of Nature is to perfect men and women, and not to manufacture mothers. Individual existence is a ceaseless ef- fort for an individual and ethical content. It is not merely con- tribution to species. Sex is a spiritual principle and not a mere physical function.
Love, which is "the greatest thing in the world/' comes by a universal law of consent, and not "at the point of the sword."
All of Nature's vital energies are centered in individual man and woman. All of the activities and effects of those energies radiate from the individual man and woman.
332 HARMONICS OF EVOLUTION.
This being true, the harmonics of life depend upon the bal- ance and harmony attained between the individual man and woman.
Evolution is nothing more nor less than the spiritual prin- ciple of polarity or affinity in operation, and
"Love is the fulfilling of this law."