CHAPTER VII.

THE SPIRITUAL BASIS OF EVOLUTION.
The word "Evolution" belongs to modern physical science.
The principles and processes, however, which constitute evo- lution have been known to Natural Science for ages.
Why, then, has Natural Science remained so long silent con- cerning these known facts of Nature?
This is a question the reader will naturally ask. It is one the writer cheerfully answers.
History and experience show that the instruction of a people must be conducted within the limitations of the average intelli- gence.
Scientists have been forced to silence, first, by general igno- rance concerning Nature, and, second, by the general preju- dices against men who assume to be the superiors or teachers of mankind.
The few who outstrip the many always have suffered and always will suffer embarrassment in their attempts to transmit their knowledge to the world. Between the learned few and the unlearned masses are many barriers. There is, first, the funda- mental barrier of ideas; next is the barrier of words, and last, but not least, the universal barrier of prejudice on the side of the unlearned.
Though the world clamors for truth, the history of human development is a long record of persecutions and indignities which the world has heaped upon its teachers of truth. No man nor school of men can teach a science or philosophy except the people have reached a development corresponding to the class of knowledge to be taught.
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Not even then can a people be taught except by their own free choice and desire. Picture the perplexity of a Darwin or an Edison attempting to teach his science to our native American Indians in their own language. Imagine still further the diffi- culties, should the savage entertain a prejudice against the sci- entist and condemn his teaching in advance.
The relation between the learned few and the people has, for ages, furnished a parallel to this hypothetical case.
For six hundred years physical science has suffered just such embarrassments. It is a continual struggle between the man who discovers and the masses which are prejudiced against dis- coveries. Thus has the modern school suffered, although it claims to teach only the visible and tangible facts of physical Nature which are demonstrable to any intelligence demanding proof. The older school, however, has a still more difficult task. It undertakes to teach the natural facts of spiritual Nature, ^which can only be personally demonstrated by a high order of INTELLI- GENCE, COURAGE and PERSEVERANCE.
Christ's ministry illustrated the gulf between a "Master" of the higher science and the public mind in Judea nineteen hun- dred years ago. It will be remembered that the man then ad- dressed as "Master" by the common people continually exhib- ited his superior powers. For illustration, he clearly read the minds of those about him and those at a distance. He made no attempt, however, to explain the process of mental telepathy. He could not have done so had He desired. At that time there was not sufficient general scientific knowledge. The public mind was a child's mind. It was not the simplicity of the Nazarene but the limitations of His hearers which gave rise to the Parables.
Christ healed the sick by the laying on of hands. He did not, however, discuss either physical or spiritual magnetism. He turned water into wine, yet He did not explain the process which raised the vibratory action of water into that of the wine he imitated. He cast out Devils; that is, He released certain weak-willed persons from the control of vicious disembodied
THE SPIRITUAL BASIS OF EVOLUTION. 119
intelligences. He did not, however, explain the law of control and obsession. He did no more than utter a warning against such communication with and submission to "evil spirits."
Had Christ declared at the beginning of His ministry that the world was round or that man evolved through lower forms, it is probable that He would have been crucified several years earlier. He could no more have explained His science to those simple people of Judea than a Roentgen could explain the "X- ray" to native Patagonians.
Nineteen hundred years ago the common intelligence was closed to science. Study and utilization of Nature's forces had no place in the popular mind. Even the better educated had not studied Nature after the rational methods of our modern western nations. So great has been the chasm between the common mind and the trained intelligence of the few that no attempt has heretofore been made to publicly teach the science underly- ing this philosophy.
The most ever attempted up to this time has been the pre- sentation of ethical codes based upon science.
Even this ethical teaching has appeared mysterious. It has been presented in poetic and figurative speech. The simple facts of Nature have been concealed in symbol and parable, in alle- gory, proverb and song. A primitive people, like young chil- dren, can be taught ethical truth before they have either a crav- ing or capacity for scientific knowledge. Teachers of the primi- tive mind, like the teachers of young children, have universally adopted a figurative and poetic style.
Only advanced intelligence desires and demands literal and exact knowledge.
Public teaching of any class of knowledge necessitates, first, a common language; next, a general community of ideas and sympathy of purposes, and, finally, a desire for instruction on the part of the unlearned. A common vocabulary and a com- munity of ideas and purposes are, however, matters of slow growth. Neither new words nor new ideas can be forced upon
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the mind that is either unprepared or hostile. A great scientist may coin a few words and inject them into a language. He can not, however, coin an entire vocabulary. A scholar may inject a few new ideas into the common mind. He can not, however, immediately impart an entire science or system of philosophy.
The knowledge gained by the specialists of the higher science is not selfishly withheld from the world. The transmission of that knowledge merely waits upon the preparation and hospi- tality of the general mind. The dearest ambition of every such specialist is to impart his knowledge. How to impart it has been the problem of the ages. He finds, to his sorrow, that the task of acquirement is infinitely less than the task of teaching.
The past six 'hundred years have developed an order of intelligence unlike anything in the history of man on this planet. The people of this western world occupy a position that is unique in the intellectual history of the world. Six hundred years along the exact lines of physical science have carried this people to a very high average of intellectual development. Dur- ing this period of gradual accumulation of knowledge have been evolved a scientific vocabulary and scientific ideas and habits of thought. During this period the common mind has been gradu- ally trained to rational methods of investigation and demonstra- tion.
For the first time in its history the school of Natural Science sees the possibility of explaining its history, its knowledge, its methods and its purposes to the world at large.
As its name implies, physical science is concerned with the physical aspect of Nature. It deals with phenomena visible or tangible to the five physical senses. It deals with man, the earth, the planets and the universe wholly upon the physical side. It confines itself, or attempts to confine itself, entirely to that which is visible or tangible to the physical sensory organs.
Physical science, however, has not been able to ignore certain universal phenomena, which, it is forced to admit, are "super- physical" or "metaphysical." In the first place, it has been
THE SPIRITUAL BASIS OF EVOLUTION. 121
forced to consider the phenomenon of intelligence which attaches to all sentient life. Next, it has been forced to concede the existence of certain moral elements which distinguish human beings. It has been forced to consider a certain quality of love and altruism in the human family, neither of which is sex passion. It has noted the fact of pure affection in animals. It has been forced to observe affection and friendship between animals and men.
So universal are these phenomena, so extensive their force, so potent their influence, that physical science has not been able to ignore them.
It even attempts to account for them.
Physical science, by this attempt to explain spiritual and psychical phenomena by physical analysis, betrays its insuffi- ciency in these particular lines.
At the outset these higher phenomena appear so radically unlike physical phenomena that modern physical science is driven into a change of terminology. It is forced to select for this higher phenomena a name which shall distinguish it from physical phenomena. This definition alone furnishes a com- mentary upon physical materialism which declares as a basic proposition that "All is matter and mechanical force."
Physical science classifies these higher phenomena of life as "psychical." The word "psychical," it will be remembered, is derived from the Greek "psyche," meaning "soul." It is not claimed that physical science acknowledges the existence of the soul by its use of the term "psychical." It does, however, by such definition, confess that Nature embraces phenomena which cannot be classified as physical.
Physical science, after first assuming that everything has a physical basis, sets out to find the physical causes for its "psychi- cal" facts. So long as it seeks only to relate physical cause with physical effect it is admirable. When, however, it attempts to relate psychical phenomena with physical causes it ignominiously fails.
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The inevitable logic of such an assumption is to relate intelli- gence to the digestive organs and to define love as the efflores- cence of physical lust. Against such assumptions common in- tuition, common experience and common sense rebel.
The best intelligence of to-day accepts the physical facts of Nature as collated and classified by physical science. This same intelligence, however, declines to accept the theories advanced by physical science as to the causes of psychical phenomena. These hypothetical dogmas, based upon only half the facts of Nature, bewildered even so great an intelligence as Mr. Huxley. Having accepted the physical facts of Darwinism, he somehow felt bound to accept Darwin's guesses as to the causes of those facts.
As a result, Huxley repudiated Nature and denounced it as a monster without a single principle that conserved justice or love or altruism. He forced his reason to accept what his intuitions always denied, viz., that all we have been, are, or may become, are merely automatic results of physical feeding, breeding and battle. It is little wonder that this great scientist declared life an unsolvable riddle, intelligence a delusion, love essentially lust and morality without the sanction of Nature. It is little wonder that he said, "I wash my hands of Nature."
Upon just such extraordinary hypotheses as these the modern school of physical science attempts to account for, and to explain a man. These are the theories which stultify intelligence, out- rage conscience and violate universal experience.
The best intelligence of to-day declares that such theories and such assumptions explain neither the psychical facts of Na- ture nor all of the physical facts. As a result, honest and inquir- ing minds everywhere are seeking more satisfactory interpreta- tions of the higher phenomena. Such investigators are moving forward regardless alike of dogmatic theology and scientific skepticism.
Physical science is also progressive. Within its own recog- nized boundaries are the few who have outstripped their fellows
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in both the perception and demonstration of Nature's finer forces. Since Darwin's hopeless pronunciamento fell upon the world, his own students have made discoveries and modified their master's dogmas. The collaborator of Charles Darwin, Mr. Alfred Rus- sel Wallace, after an additional fifty years of investigation, re- pudiates Darwin's doctrine of physical materialism.
Other and foremost representatives of the modern school are to-day experimenting along the very border line which divides physical material and physical phenomena from spiritual material and spiritual phenomena. Edison, Gray, Tesla and Roentgen are continually extending their knowledge and control over the finest physical element in existence. Keely and others have at- tempted to do more than this. They have endeavored to utilize the purely spiritual forces in Nature for the practical benefit of society.
Mr. Keely claimed to have passed the limitations of physical matter. He may have done so. He was not, however, able to control and practically utilize those finer and more subtle vibra- tions of the spiritual elements.
Experiments in hypnotism alone have pushed certain special- ists of the school of physical science into the domain of the higher science. Charcot and others of the "Regular School" of medicine, have successfully passed the limitations of physical matter. These men, however, are, as yet, experimenting in total ignorance of the forces and elements employed. The modern hypnotist does not, as yet, really know that the general exercise of hypnotic control would be far more deleterious to man than is physical disease and death.
Physical disease merely destroys the physical body, while hypnotic control, if persisted in, destroys the human powers of will and the faculties of the intelligent soul itself.
Darwinism is now generally accepted as the representative system of modern physical science. "The Descent of Man" is more than a scientific treatise. It is a philosophical doctrine. It is more than a classification of physical facts. It undertakes to
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explain, not only the causes of those physical facts, but the causes of the "psychical" facts in Nature.
The causes assigned to the "psychical" facts of Nature by physical materialism are wholly inadequate causes. The doc- trines of Darwinism are, therefore, misleading and unfortunate.
Darwin thinks he discovers the working formula of evolution, He thinks he discovers, as a fundamental principle in the evolu- tion of man, "A struggle for existence in the midst of a hostile environment." That is to say, Darwin holds that all living sen- tient entities are primarily engaged in the struggle for physical nutrition. It has been claimed for Darwin that his "Struggle for Existence" had a broader significance than a mere competi- tive and selfish struggle for physical nutrition. If so, that fact nowhere appears in his own works. From first to last he reduces all phenomena of the higher life of man to this primary struggle for physical nutrition. His own, now famous proposition, con- firms this statement.
Darwin, himself, reduces his "struggle for existence" to a mere struggle for physical nutrition when he says : "The struggle for nutrition compels natural selection with reproduction as a consequence, entailing divergence of character and extermina- tion of less improved species."
Darwin may have originally intended this "Struggle for Ex- istence" to include more than the struggle for nutrition. If so, he lost sight of his own intention. The fact remains, that the popular idea of the Darwinian theory is "A Struggle for Nutri- tion in the midst of a hostile environment." It is, therefore, this popular idea and popular error which command the attention of Natural Science.
Darwinism claims to have discovered two very important facts, viz.:
(1) That the fundamental struggle of sentient life is the strug- gle for physical nutrition.
(2) That Nature is universally hostile to the life it generates. Thus, Darwinism fixes upon the digestive organs as the
THE SPIRITUAL BASIS OF EVOLUTION. 125
source of all progress, and holds that Nature, so prolific in gen- eration of life, nevertheless provides infinite obstacles to living itselL
By reason of this supposed hostility Darwinism claims that a purely egoistic and competitive struggle for nutrition begins with the dawn of life. This necessity for food forces all living entities to prey upon each other. It establishes life as a per- petual battle in which the physically strong prey upon the phys- ically weak. It establishes a universal slaughter in which only the "fittest physically" survive. It establishes the principle of competition as fundamental in evolution, and sets up a law of self-defense as the primary law of progress.
All of these supposed facts and conditions have, as a result, been taken to mean that man as we know him, a physical, in- telligent, moral being, is but an automatic result of food com- binations.
It will be seen, therefore, that Darwinism refers all organiza- tion, variation and progress of the original life cell to the original hunger of the cell itself. According to Darwin, this original hun- ger of the life cell induces a struggle for nutrition, sets up a competition for food and engenders that species of activity which forces organization, variation and improvement. These activi- ties, be it understood, from life cell to man, are held by him to be essentially mere competitions for food and physical benefit.
Darwinian doctrine, though erroneous in principle and mis- leading in effect, is both logical and consistent with the purely physical facts on which it rests. Its conclusions are in a direct line with that later premise which declares that all is physical matter, mechanical force and automatic result. While Darwin- ism is forced to deal with metaphysical phenomena, it denies that there are innate metaphysical principles in the evolution of man. On the contrary, it refers all activity, whether competitive or co- operative, to a demand for physical food, to re-enforcement from without, and to conditions generally hostile to life and living.
Darwinism is, therefore, logical when it determines that all
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phenomena, including the physical body, the intelligence and the love nature of man, are the combined results of the digestive and generating organs. By "love" Darwinism means a physical pas- sion only. Darwin frankly confesses that he finds no sanction in Nature for either love that transcends physical passion or for altruism which is neither love nor lust. Darwinism, therefore, finds no higher inspiration for human activity than the physical appetites and a self-love engendered by the passions. It finds further, that all this progress, physical, intellectual and moral, has been accomplished in spite of Nature's hostility.
This, in brief, is the dreary doctrine which the best intelligence of the age, while fearing to deny, cannot yet force itself to accept.
This is a doctrine which modern physical science will prob- ably discard in another decade.
Reduced to one fundamental proposition Darwinism would declare: ' 'All living organisms, together with intelligence and love, are expressions of physical laws and forces."
Thus, the doctrine of pure physical materialism finds Nature to be a mechanical monster without intelligence or moral intent. It finds life to be a godless, loveless and hopeless warfare of the strong against the weak. It finds intelligence an automatic re- sult of food combinations, and love the efflorescence of lust. It finds that the universal activities of matter, life and intelligence have no other meaning than physically improved species. \ Darwinism discovers no higher purpose in individual life than a contribution to species. It offers no other reward for con- formity to natural law than survival of the "Physically Fittest." It sets no higher ideal before human intelligence than a healthy body and material comfort. To the aspiring soul of man it prom- ises nothing better than total extinction when its contribution to species is accomplished. \
Against this unwarranted and demoralizing doctrine, intelli- gence rebels. It refuses to accept as final those assumptions which degrade life and life's purposes to the level of the physical functions and appetites.
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It is easier, however, to protest against the errors of Darwin- ism than to demonstrate in what particulars they are errors. In truth, no such protest can be successfully offered except one is fortified with exact knowledge of the facts which disprove Dar- winism. It is not enough that the common intuitions and the common experiences and the common sense of man himself deny this position of physical science. Proof of its weakness can be conclusively demonstrated only by and through an actual knowl- edge of the spiritual side of Nature.
This general protest of intelligence has been voiced in a re- markable manner by that popular literary divine, the late Henry Drummond. "The Ascent of Man," his last and most widely read book, deserves more than a passing notice.
This work is remarkable, first, for its beauty of diction ; next, for the cleverness of its theory, and finally, for the errors it con- tains.
The author of "The Ascent of Man" undertakes a super- human task; that is, he attempts to establish a moral order in Nature based upon the theories, as well as upon the accepted facts of Darwinism. His purpose is to establish love and altru- ism as the direct results of the physical functions and physical forces. The work fails of its purpose by reason of two condi- tions: first, the author, in the main, accepts the theories of Dar-_ win along with his facts ; and, second, in that he does not know as a literal scientific fact that there is a spiritual side to Nature. Because of these conditions Mr. Drummond is not equipped to meet the assaults and assumptions of physical science. Neither is he prepared to formulate, as he attempts to do, a new moral philosophy.
— Without a scintilla of absolute knowledge concerning spirit- ual laws and forces, he attempts to build a spiritualized and moral humanity upon the purely physical appetites and functions. With all its errors, however, the work is valuable, inasmuch as it is the first work which accepts the evolution of man from lower forms and yet postulates a moral order in Nature. In this it is
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unique, indicating, moreover, the expanding thought of the orthodox church.
Because of the literary merit and the popularity of this work its errors are widespread. For this reason those errors com- mand attention and exposition.
"The Ascent of Man" involves a comparison between the ad- mitted physical facts of evolution and the admitted moral phe- nomena of human life. This elaborate argument of nearly four hundred pages is intended to prove that all these moral phe- nomena have their origin in and rest upon the purely physical functions and forces. Drummond's criticism is not that Dar- winism is erroneous in theory. On the contrary, Darwinism is accepted in theory as far as it goes. That is to say, the moralist simply asserts that Darwin overlooked certain moral phenomena which are the direct results of a certain physical function which plays an important part even in the Darwinian theory. After this the Darwinian critic proceeds to set forth what appears to him as the true relation between moral phenomena and physical nature.
Now, if it shall appear that neither the skeptic nor the the- ologian was in a position to know the real factors and causes of either physical or moral phenomena, we must seek further for conclusions.
The initial error underlying "The Ascent of Man" is the au- thor's total ignorance of what the word "Spiritual" means in science. He seems to have no rational conception of the fact that the spiritual world is a material world, that spiritual elements are material elements, and that a spiritual man is as truly a ma- terial man as is the physically embodied man. He confounds | "spiritual" with "moral," and "spirituality" with "moral regen- | eration." He speaks of a "spiritual man" when he means a | moral man. He speaks of "spiritual principles" when he means ethical principles.
This lack of scientific knowledge of the spiritual side of Na- ture robs the entire work of ethical as well as scientific value.
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iThis ignorance as to the fact of spiritual matter and spiritual jelements and forces misleads the great divine when he comes to Haying down his major premise.
. Mr. Drummond, it will be remembered, introduces his new /moral philosophy as a system based upon and supported by the Iproved facts of evolution.
As a preliminary, therefore, to his own argument, the author states his position with reference to the Darwinian doctrine of evolution. To briefly restate that position is to say that Mr. Drummond accepts not only the physical facts of evolution as laid down by Darwin, but he also largely accepts Darwin's theories concerning those facts. He accepts the basic dogma of Darwin- ism, viz., "The struggle for existence in the midst of a hostile environment." He agrees with Darwin that a struggle for nutri- tion engenders that character of competition which forces in- dustry,'commerce and civilization upon the world. He accepts a universal warfare of the physically strong against the phys- ically weak, as a natural mode of progress.
The moralist agrees absolutely with Darwin as to the nature and uses of sex. He defines sex as a "physical device for re- production." He endorses Darwinism as to the uses of the female in Nature. That is, he holds that the female fulfils her destiny in reproduction.
The moralist, ho\vever, accepts these errors with one qualify- ing clause. By and through this one clause alone are differeji- tiated the two systems of philosophy. This qualifying clause is one which presents morality as a result of natural law.
The specific charge made by the moralist against the mate- rialist is to the effect that Darwinism states only half the case of Nature. He declares that Darwinism discovers but one factor in the evolution of man, when, instead, there are two. He claims that Darwinism postulates but one great physical struggle in Nature, when, in reality, there are two. He finds that Darwinism lays down but one great principle in evolution, when, in truth, there are two. He charges, therefore, that Darwinism considers 9
13° HARMONICS OF EVOLUTION.
only the physical and material effects which flow from the one factor, the one struggle and the one principle which he so ex- clusively studied and analyzed.
That particular factor to which the moralist alludes is "Nutri- tion." The struggle meant is "The struggle for existence in the midst of a hostile environment." The principle referred to is that of "Competition."
The Darwinian critic, on the contrary, declares that Nature embraces a second factor, a second physical struggle, and a second principle. More than this, he insists that there are moral and ethical, as well as physical and material effects, originating in this second physical factor. The moralist insists that the evolu- tion of man embraces another factor of equal force and another physical struggle equally important and far-reaching in results. He insists that the second struggle governs another principle equally potent with that of competition.
This second factor in evolution is laid down as the physical function of reproduction. The second great struggle growing out of this function is defined as the "Struggle for Reproduction" in the midst of a hostile environment, while the second great prin- ciple, dependent upon reproduction, is that of Self-sacrifice.
The moralist charges that Darwinism becomes so absorbed in the function of nutrition that it overlooks the function of reproduction. He claims that such undue concentration upon the physical and material results of nutrition, obscures the moral results which flow from reproduction. While he admits that the struggle for nutrition engenders a universal principle of hostility, he insists, however, that the struggle for reproduction engen- ders a principle of self-sacrifice, the effects of which must be accepted along with the effects of competition.
Just here the moralist makes his great point.
He skillfully arrays these two great physical struggles, nutri- tion and reproduction, side by side. He shows the one, nutri- tion, to be a purely egoistic, selfish and competitive struggle for individual benefit. He shows, on the other hand, that the sec-
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ond great struggle, reproduction, is purely altruistic in its nature, involving self-sacrifice for the benefit of other individuals.
As against that great "Struggle for Self," so exclusively dwelt upon by physical science, the moralist sets forth and graphically delineates that other great struggle which he so well names "The Struggle for Others."
Thus far the criticism is just. Thus far the moralist is in line with Nature. Thus far the discernment of the divine exceeds that of the skeptic. The moralist discovers what Darwin over- looks, viz., the sacrificial struggle for reproduction, its altruistic nature and the ethical phenomena almost universally attaching to the office of maternity.
Thus, the moralist postulates a moral order in Nature, and altruism as a natural phenomenon and not a disease.
In this deduction, and to this extent, Natural Science sup- ports the Darwinian critic. Here, however, the agreement ends.
The purpose of the moralist is to show that morality, love and altruism are based in Nature. While this general assump- tion is correct, he errs when he seeks to explain the natural causes of these phenomena. The initial error lies in the accept- ance of the Darwinian theory, that everything in this world has a physical basis. Darwinism is not disputed as to the physical basis of evolution. The moralist merely criticises it for not hav- ing discovered the physical basis of morality and love.
The task set by the moralist for his own ingenuity, is to dis- cover the physical basis of what we know as morality, love and altruism. The point of view from which he goes to this task is distinctly stated when he says: "Everything in the moral world has a physical basis." He further agrees with his adversary when he says: "Life is controlled by its (physical) functions." He goes even further when he touches upon the principle of human evolution, for he says in so many words: "So man, not by any innate tendency to progress, in himself, nor by the energies inher- ent in the protoplasmic cell from which he first sets out, but b*y
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continuous feeding and reinforcing from without, attains the higher altitudes."
Having thus accepted the fundamental doctrine of pure phys- ical materialism, the author sets himself to discover the particular physical causes of this "moral world."
In the search for the physical basis of love he discovers but two possible causes. He finds two universal relationships which exhibit What we know as love and altruistic phenomena. These relationships are sex and maternity. However, having previously defined sex as "A physical device for reproduction," and sex love as "A physical passion miscalled love," the moralist is driven from the consideration of sex as a possible cause. This leaves him but one other physical cause, viz., reproduction. This he accepts and analyzes as follows :
He holds that morality, love and altruism come into the world as a result of the physical pain and the physical sacrifice of the female half of all life. He fixes upon the enforced physical sacrifice of the female in reproduction as the one and only cause in Nature for the evolution of love. He thus conceives the extraor- dinary idea that Nature embraces an absolutely diabolical plan for forcing love upon the human family, for, to quote directly, the moralist says : "Love is forced upon the world at the point of the sword."
Thus, a great teacher of spiritual truth not only fails to find spiritual principles governing physical evolution, but he insists that the physical functions create the love relationships and the ethical phenomena of human life. Is not this a singular hypoth- esis for one who is supposed to teach the permanency of that which is spiritual and that which is ethical, and the impermanency of that which is physical?
Drummondism, therefore, does little to enlarge the vision of ; evolution as laid down by Darwinism.
Having accepted sex as "a physical device for reproduction," it is necessarily treated from that restricted point of view. Sex attraction is everywhere analyzed as physical sex passion. Sex
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love is everywhere referred to as a biological need for reproduc- tion. The love relation of man and woman is everywhere lev- eled to the purely physical relation and the physical purpose of that relation. In brief, sex is treated throughout from the view- point of physical materialism, viz., as a physical device conserving reproduction.
This interpretation involves another scientific error. The moralist makes no distinction between love which is individual in its nature, and altruism which is general in its nature. He uses interchangeably, and therefore erroneously, the words love and altruism. This new moral philosophy claims that love or altruism is an evolution of feeling based wholly upon the physical function of reproduction. He holds that the enforced sacrifices of the female half of life are the sole causes of all human sym- pathies, whether those sympathies be expressed as love that is individual, or altruism that is general.
According to this theory any sex relation that rises higher than physical lust must be attributed, first, to the inherited effects of maternity, and, second, to a mutual desire or love for progeny. How far this theory coincides with universal history and univer- sal experience, is left as an open question. How far it contra- dicts the individual impulses, intuitions and aspirations of the soul, each intelligent reader must determine for himself.
Just how far such a theory contravenes Nature, it has been the effort of the higher science to demonstrate.
''The moralist has not added one fact to the general store of human knowledge. Instead, he has merely placed upon the market another theory which the best intelligence and the finest intuitions of men and women reject. He has advanced a theory of love which history and universal experience disprove. He has assigned woman to a place in Nature which woman herself con- demns and refuses to occupy. He has so interpreted the love relation of man and woman as to contravene the highest aspira- tions and ideals of every thinking man and woman.
Carefully reducing this theory to its fundamental proposition
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discloses its coincidence with that of physical materialism. When so reduced it would simply read: All living organisms, together with love and altruism, are expressions of physical laws and forces.
Thus, "The Ascent of Man," based upon facts of physical Nature, brilliantly written and highly entertaining, is, yet, as erroneous in theory as the doctrine promulgated in "The Descent of Man."
I At just this point of debate between scientific skepticism and {orthodox theology the higher science, with deference to both, desires to be heard. The public is entitled to receive a wider range of fact than that covered by the theorists of either school. The older school presents an array of facts gathered upon two planes of causation. It would, therefore, seem to be the better authority as to the real factors and causes of the evolution of man.
Because of this wider experience and more extended knowl- edge of facts, Natural Science must not be deemed presumptuous if it contradicts the basic propositions of both the skeptic and the theologian.
As already stated, no effort will be made to explain ultimates in Nature. The higher science does not claim to have discovered the First Cause. It does not claim to have analyzed the Infinite. It does not pretend to explain when or how or why Infinite Intel- ligence set in motion this evolutionary scheme. It does not claim to have discovered how or why the First Cause selected this particular scheme for the evolution of man. It does not, in short, profess to either know or explain the ultimates of matter, or mo- tion, or life, or intelligence, or love.
Natural Science, like physical science, is forced to deal with Nature as it is. It is also forced to operate with finite intelligence in every department of science. Finite intelligence, dealing with infinite problems, is forced, at least in its earlier reaches, to dis- miss the ultimate issues of this stupendous scheme of Nature. The broader science, therefore, deals with the phenomena of
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two planes of matter, motion, life, intelligence and morality, just as physical science deals with the phenomena of one plane, viz., by study, analysis and demonstration as far as the individual, finite intelligence can penetrate under given conditions.
Physical science finds matter, motion, life, intelligence and love as common phenomena upon this physical plane. Natural Science finds the same phenomena, common also, upon the spiritual plane. It is therefore driven to the general deduction that matter, motion, life, intelligence and love are the correlated properties, elements, principles and activities of both worlds, and that they are universal in time and space. It accepts matter as a universal property of Nature, and motion as a universal mode. It accepts life as a universal element and intelligence as a univer- sal principle. It accepts love as a universal activity of the in- telligent soul.
Further than this finite science has not penetrated. It simply finds and accepts these two planes of existence which have cor- related properties, modes, elements, principles and activities. It accepts them as ultimates as far as the finite mind is concerned. It holds that these ultimates are unvarying in principle, inde- structible in essence, yet infinitely varied in manifestation.
Natural Science deals with man as with any other product of Nature. It studies him upon each plane and explains him in his relation to both. Physical science accepts man as the highest product of this physical plane. Natural Science also discovers that he is the highest manifestation upon the spiritual plane. Therefore, as far as finite science goes, man, in form, intelligence, capacity, individual activity and attainment, is the highest prod- uct of Nature in time and space.
Man is a living soul and he has two bodies, the one physical and impermanent, the other spiritual and more enduring. When the student is able to intelligently leave the physical body for investigation upon the spiritual plane, he discovers certain facts that have a bearing as to this "basis of evolution." Among these important facts are:
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(1) That he, in common with all men upon this planet, in- habits and operates two material bodies of unlike refinement and vibratory action.
(2) He demonstrates that the physical and spiritual bodies jfrnay temporarily separate without causing physical death.
($ During such separation the intelligent Ego or soul re- mains with the spiritual body or the "spirit."
(4) It is the intelligent Ego, or soul, who plans for and effects this release of the spirit.
, (5) Finite science has not discovered how to separate the intelligent Ego from its ethereal organism which is defined as the "spirit."
(6) By personal contact and acquaintance with ex-human beings, the student finds that men live on indefinitely in the spirit, while their discarded physical bodies disintegrate and return to mother earth.
(7) He thus proves that man is a spiritual being, destined to live indefinitely in the more enduring spirit form. He thus proves that the physical body of man is built upon the permanent spiritual body, or that the earthly man is a spirit about which the coarser physical matter integrates for a given range of years.
(8) What is discovered as to man is true of animals; that is, the student perceives that every living physical animal is mod- eled upon a superior and more enduring spirit.
(9) As with the animal, so with the tree and the rock. Each of these physical entities is shaped upon a finer and more lasting spiritual model.
What do these facts prove to the investigator? They prove indisputably that every physical entity is also a spiritual entity. They s(how that what we designate as magnetism, vitality and life, reside primarily in the spiritual models of things. Proof of this i last statement is found in the fact that the organic life element! passes out of the physical and endures in the "spirit" long after the discarded physical form has disintegrated.
Thus, everything in Nature, from the senseless physical atom
THE SPIRITUAL BASIS OF EVOLUTION. 137
to the highest human, is fashioned upon an ethereal or spiritual duplicate. (The duration of these spirits of physical things is not a matter of discussion here and now.) That which is im- portant to man in this connection is the fact that organic life and the intelligence depart with the spirit and continue to operate indefinitely upon the spiritual plane.
These are the facts in Nature which justify science in declar- ing that THERE is NO DEATH,, that spiritual matter and spiritual forces underlie physical matter and physical forces, and that spiritual principles govern physical manifestations.
These are the facts which justify science in declaring that the struggle for physical nutrition is not the fundamental factor in evolution, and that the physical struggle for reproduction is not the fundamental factor in either morality, altruism or love. These are the facts which enable Natural Science to declare with- out assumption that physical evolution has a spiritual basis and that the ethical phenomena of life are referable to spiritual and psychical principles in Nature.
The student of spiritual phenomena discovers the facts of spiritual nature exactly as the physical scientist discovers the facts of physical nature, viz., by and through the reports which he re- ceives through his several sensory organs. The difference in the nature of the phenomena observed simply demands the ex- ercise of a different set of sensory organs. The advantage of the Natural Scientist in the study of Nature is his ability to use both sets of sensory organs freely, independently and rationally. The physicist sees only the physical side of Nature. The special- ist of the higher science sees with equal clearness the spirit of matter as well as its physical manifestation.
For example: The physical scientist sees only the physical man, while the spiritual scientist sees both the physical and the spiritual man. He may see the two bodies alternately or simul- taneously. He sees the physical form with the physical eyes and the spiritual form with the spiritual eyes.
How long the "spirits" of men endure after physical death is
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not under discussion here, nor is the relative duration as be- tween the spirit of a man and the spirit of the animal a part of this work.
Suffice it to say, that man alone represents a principle in Nature which confers self-consciousness, personal identity, and the capacity for persistence as an individualized intelligence. It is not denied, however, that the spiritual body or the spirit of man is subject to change.
That which is alone pertinent to the point at issue, viz., the basis of evolution, is the fact that every physical thing in this phys- ical world is but a manifestation of the potent and more en- during spiritual elements and forces. All we see or touch or know as physical matter is simply coarse physical material which integrates in organic form upon spiritual models.
Sooner or later scientific skepticism and religious speculation will yield to the logic of facts. They will not do so, however, until the limit of physical experiment is reached. They will then, it is believed, accept the principles and adopt the methods of the higher science.
It will be observed that no attempt is made to explain why the "Great Intelligence" sets just the patterns that exist in both worlds. In a general sense it is held that all living organisms are adaptations; that is, that all living entities have, to a certain degree, shaped themselves and been shaped to the uses of the intelligence which animates them. This, however, does not ex- plain why one intelligent entity shapes its body or is shaped to live in a tree, while another shapes itself or is shaped to burrow in the ground.
Darwin in his "Origin of Species" presents an excellent the- ory from the view-point of a materialist. He finds that the strug- gle for nutrition in the midst of a hostile environment, forced living entities to move in different channels, and that these en- forced selections shaped the physical organism to meet those different conditions.
The specialist of the higher science also theorizes as to the
THE SPIRITUAL BASIS OF EVOLUTION. 139
differentiation of species. His theories, however, are not the same as those of the physical materialist. His speculations are based upon a wider range of actual knowledge. They are based upon that already proved spiritual principle which governs evolu- tion, viz., the principle of polarity. We again approach a sub- ject not germain to the question in hand. The theories of Natu- ral Science upon the origin of species are not a part of this work.
It is discovered that Nature embraces certain fundamental principles, properties and elements. By Nature, is meant the correlated phenomena of the physical and spiritual planes. It is found, for instance, that matter is a universal property, that magnetism, vitality and life are universal elements. It is found that this universal property and these universal elements are brought into co-operation through that principle of polarity which is universal in time and space.
It is discovered that the four great physical kingdoms, min- eral, vegetable, animal and human, represent that universal prop- erty defined as matter and those several elements which we define as Life Elements. This co-operation of matter and life is univer- sally brought about through the principle of polarity or the prin- ciple of positive and receptive energy. This co-operation of phys- ical matter and the Life Elements is universally conducted through individual processes. That is to say, the evolution of each physical kingdom is the result of the individual activities of entities which go to make up that kingdom. This individual activity of the entity occasions all magnetic change and chemical com- bination. It occasions all growth, vegetable and animal. It gov- erns the increase of intelligence and the development of reason, morality and love.
It is also discovered that physical change and transmutation of matter are occasioned by the spiritual, rather than the phys- ical, part of the individual entity. That is to say, all the opera- tions of the physical individual are occasioned by demands which inhere in the vital spiritual body. This means that the struggle for nutrition, the struggle for reproduction, and all other strug-
140 HARMONICS OF EVOLUTION.
gles appearing to be physical, are, in truth, prompted by demands which primarily exist in the spirit.
One who studies the spirit of physical matter discovers, first, that all the operations of individuals in the lower kingdom are intelligent. He finds that all activities of animals are governed by conscious intelligence resident in the spirit. He discovers fur- ther, that the voluntary acts of men are directly referable to that highest, and apparently indestructible entity, the self-conscious intelligence or soul. Science, therefore, determines in reference to man, that this persistent, intelligent Ego operates both bodies in this physical life and departs with the spirit at physical death.
Science discovers vastly more than the fact that there are principles, properties and elements universal in Nature. It goes further than mere analysis of co-operations as between these prin- ciples, properties and elements. It goes further than mere dem- onstration of material processes of evolution, whether those proc- esses be physical or spiritual. It declares, without hesitation and with perfect confidence, that this world of ours is something more than a world of physical forces and functions grinding out auto- matic results. It declares, instead, that the spiritual forces which underlie physical activities produce results that are purely spirit- ual results. It declares further, that the intelligent, self-operating principle which animates animal and man is capable of producing another class of effects which are neither physical nor spiritual. These are effects which concern only the intelligence of the ani- mal or of man.
Man, physically embodied, represents all the principles, prop- erties and elements in Nature. He therefore represents all of the energies, capacities and activities of the kingdoms below his own. To these he adds psychical powers, or the energies and capaci- ties of the Soul Element. It is, therefore, declared upon the basis of long investigation and repeated experiment and demonstra- tion, that evolution is the result of spiritual laws and forces. It is also held that the ethical phenomena of human life have their origin in the energies and activities of the Soul. This position^
THE SPIRITUAL BASIS OF EVOLUTION. 141
as will be seen, explicitly denies a solely physical basis of evolu- tion, whether the phenomena considered are physical, spiritual or psychical. It denies that the evolution of man is the sole result of feeding, breeding and battle. It denies that man, a spiritual being, a living Soul, is the automatic result of the digestive organs or of physical re-enforcement from without.
These conclusions are based upon exact data concerning the "spirit of matter," the nature and the operations of the Life Elements, and the persistence of the Soul after physical death. This is a position which enables science to explain earth's phe- nomena as representatives of elements and forces which reside in the spirit of matter and endure after physical death.
Thus, science considers the evolution of man and classifies all his activities as results and effects of natural, spiritual and psychical laws and forces. This being true, physical nature is a manifestation of spiritual nature. Morality is an effect of psy- chical forces and not of physical forces. Love is an activity oy the soul and not an efflorescence of the physical functions.
The most careful study and demonstration leave science no choice of conclusions in these matters. It has come to know that the spiritual side of matter is the organic and vital side, that spiritual things are the enduring things, that spiritual forces are the governing forces of physical phenomena, and that psychical^ forces are the governing forces of ethical phenomena. Famili- arity with both planes of existence conclusively shows that everything physical is patterned upon a spiritual model. Ac- quaintance with man in two worlds conclusively proves that his evolution here rests upon the vital energies and the ethical capaci- ties which inhere in the spirit and the living soul.
These are the facts which constitute propositions new to our modern world, but fundamental in the higher science. These propositions stand out in sharp antithesis to those laid down by physical materialism, whether offered from the view-point of a skeptic or that of a theologian.
Resting upon the carefully proved facts of two correlated
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worlds of matter, life, intelligence, morality and love, Natural Science declares:
(1) All living physical organisms are expressions of spiritual laws and forces.
(2) Human love and altruism are ethical phenomena gov- erned by the intelligent soul.
Thus it is that the higher science accepts, only in part, the system of evolution as promulgated in "The Descent of Man." Thus it is that it accepts, only in part, the evolution of love as embodied in "The Ascent of Man."
Without rejecting the minutest physical fact which has, as yet, been discovered by modern physical science, Natural Science hopes to show to the careful investigator that modern intelligence has not as yet correctly interpreted its own array of fact.
On the contrary, the reader is asked to note the fact that the propositions of Natural Science enclose the discoveries and de- ductions of physical science, as the law of motion and number encloses the principles and propositions of Euclid.