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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..04d4a01 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #65145 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/65145) diff --git a/old/65145-0.txt b/old/65145-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 440e3f5..0000000 --- a/old/65145-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,8242 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook, Essays of a Biologist, by Julian Huxley - - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - - -Title: Essays of a Biologist - - -Author: Julian Huxley - - - -Release Date: April 23, 2021 [eBook #65145] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - - -***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ESSAYS OF A BIOLOGIST*** - - -E-text prepared by Charlene Taylor, Martin Pettit, and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images -generously made available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org) - - - -Note: Images of the original pages are available through - Internet Archive. See - https://archive.org/details/essaysofbiologis1923huxl - - - - - -ESSAYS OF A BIOLOGIST - - - * * * * * * - -DUCTLESS AND OTHER GLANDS - -_Fred E. Wynne, M. B._ - - -A brief description of the results of recent research into the -physiology and functions of the ductless glands and the application of -this knowledge to the prevention and cure of disease. - - * * * * * * - - -ESSAYS of a BIOLOGIST - -by - -JULIAN HUXLEY - - -[Illustration: Logo] - - - - - - -New York -Alfred · A · Knopf -1923 - -Copyright, 1923, by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. - -Published October, 1923 - -Set up, electrotyped, printed and bound by the Vail-Ballou Press, Inc., -Binghamton, N. Y. -Paper furnished by W. F. Etherington & Co., New York. - -Manufactured in the United States of America - - - - -TO MY COLLEAGUES AND FRIENDS -AT THE RICE INSTITUTE -HOUSTON, TEXAS - - - - -PREFACE - - -A preface should be long, like one of Mr. Shaw’s, or short. I propose -the latter. - -The essays here collected were written on very various occasions. This -must excuse the considerable overlap that will be found among them. I -have not thought it worth while to attempt to get rid of this, since, -though facts may be repeated, the point of view and general context are -on each occasion different. - -Contrary to all custom, I have put the meat courses at the two ends -of my menu. If an author may presume to advise his readers, I would -suggest that, after finishing the first essay, they should (if they -retain a stomach for more) proceed at once to the last. This done, they -will find the others all in a sense lesser variations (if I may change -my metaphor) upon the same themes. - -In spite, however, of the diversity of their occasions, there is a -common thread running through them, a common background of ideas. I -do not know whether I am justified in calling those ideas especially -biological, but they are certainly ideas which must present themselves -to any biologist who does not deliberately confine himself to the -technicalities of his science. - -The biologist cannot fail to be impressed by the fact that his science -to-day is, roughly and broadly speaking, in the position which -Chemistry and Physics occupied a century ago. It is beginning to reach -down from observation to experimental analysis, and from experimental -analysis to grasp of principle. Furthermore, as the grasp of principles -in physico-chemical science led speedily to an immense new extension -both of knowledge and of control, so it is not to be doubted that -like effects will spring from like causes in biology. But whereas the -extension of control in physics and chemistry led to a multiplication -of the number of things which man could do and experience, the -extension of control in biology will _inter alia_ mean an alteration -of the modes of man’s experience itself. The one, that is to say, -remained in essence a quantitative change so far as concerns the real -life of man; the other can be a qualitative change. Applied physics and -chemistry bring more grist to the mill; applied biology will also be -capable of changing the mill itself. - -The possibilities of physiological improvement, of the better -combination of existing psychical faculties, of the education of -old faculties to new heights, and of the discovery of new faculties -altogether--all this is no utopian silliness, but is bound to come -about if science continues her current progress. - -Take but one example. In the first half of last century, hypnotism, or -mesmerism as it was then called, was in complete scientific disrepute. -To-day, all the main claims of its founders have been verified, and -many new facts unearthed. Every text-book on the subject will tell -you that men may be made insensible to pain by hypnosis alone without -any drug, many women even being delivered of children under its -influence without suffering. Temperature can be changed, blisters -raised, and many other processes not normally under the control of the -will can similarly be affected. The mind can be raised to an abnormal -sensitiveness, in which differences between objects that are completely -unrecognizable in ordinary waking existence, such as those between the -backs of two cards in a pack, may be easily distinguished. - -If such possibilities are open to the empiricism of the hypnotist, -what may we not await from any truly scientific knowledge of mind, -comparable even in low degree to our knowledge of, say, electricity? - -But these in a sense are all details, relevant in a way, and yet only -details. There is something still more fundamental in the biologist’s -attitude. He has to study evolution, and in that study there is brought -home to him, more vividly than to any one to whom the facts are not so -familiar, that in spite of all appearances to the contrary there has -been, throughout the whole of evolution, and most markedly in the rise -of man from his pre-human forbears, a real advance, a progress. - -He sees further that the most remarkable single feature in that -progress has been the evolution of self-consciousness in the -development of man. That has made possible not only innumerable single -changes, but a change in the very method of change itself; for it -substituted the possibility of conscious control of evolution for the -previous mechanism of the blind chances of variation aided by the -equally blind sifting process of natural selection, a mechanism in -which consciousness had no part. - -Most of mankind, now as in the past, close their eyes to this -possibility. They seek to put off their responsibility on to -the shoulders of various abstractions which they think can bear -their burden well enough if only they are spelt with a capital -letter:--Fate--God--Nature--Law--Eternal Justice--and such like. Men -are educated to be self-reliant and enterprising in the details of -life, but dependent, unreflective, _laissez-faire_ about life itself. -The idea that the basis of living could be really and radically altered -is outside most people’s orbit; and if it is forced upon their notice, -they as often as not find it in some way immoral. - -Closely connected with this, in a sense its corollary, we have the fact -that ninety-nine people out of a hundred are concerned with getting a -living rather than with living, and that if for any reason they are -liberated from this necessity, they generally have not the remotest -idea how to employ their time with either pleasure or profit to -themselves or to others. - -There are two ways of living: a man may be casual and simply exist, -or constructive and deliberately try to do something with his life. -The constructive idea implies constructiveness not only about one’s -own life, but about that of society, and the future possibilities of -humanity. - -In pre-human evolution, the blind chances of variation and the blind -sifting of natural selection have directed the course of evolution -and of progress. It is on survival and the production of offspring -that the process has hinged; the machinery is in reality blind, but -these emerge as its apparent ends or purposes. The realization of ever -higher potentialities of living substance has happened, but only as a -secondary result and slow by-product of the main process. - -In human evolution up till the present, the apparent ends and aims -have for the most part and in the bulk of men remained the same; it is -only the methods of pursuing them that have changed. True or conscious -purpose comes in and aids the unconscious biological forces already at -work. - -However, to most men at some time, and to some men at most times, -these purely biological ends and purposes of life become altogether -inadequate. They perceive the door opened to a thousand possibilities -higher than this, all demanding to be satisfied. The realization of -what for want of a better term we can call spiritual values becomes -the true end of life, superposed on and dominating the previous -biological values. - -When civilizations and societies are organized so that their prime -purpose is the pursuit of spiritual values, then life will have -passed another critical point in its evolution; as always, what has -gone before is necessary as foundation for what is coming, and the -biological conditions must be fulfilled before the new and higher -edifice can be built; but, as when the mammals superseded the reptiles, -so this change of aim will mean the rise of a new type to be the -dominant and highest form of life. - -This can only come about so far as man consciously attempts to make -it come about. His evolution up to the present can be summed up in -one sentence--that through his coming to possess reason, life in his -person has become self-conscious, and evolution is handed over to him -as trustee and director. “Nature” will no longer do the work unaided. -Nature--if by that we mean blind and non-conscious forces--has, -marvellously, produced man and consciousness; they must carry on the -task to new results which she alone can never reach. - -Mr. Trotter, in his delightful book on the Herd-instinct, draws -a distinction between the stable-minded or resistive and the -unstable-minded or adaptive, and points out how the destinies of -society have usually been entrusted to the former--whence spring our -persecutions of prophets and our neglect of innovating genius. This -will continue so long as the accepted belief of the majority is that -there exists a Providence who has assigned every one his proper place, -or even (oddest whim!) ordained the present type of society; so long -as they rely more on authority than experience, look to the past more -than to the future, to revelation instead of reason, to an arbitrary -Governor instead of to a discoverable order. - -The general conceptions of the universe which a man or a civilization -entertains come in large part to determine his or its actions. There -are only two general and embracing conceptions of the sort (though any -number which are not general, and fail because they leave out whole -tracts of reality): in the fewest possible words, one is scientific, -the other unscientific; one tries to use to its fullest extent the -intellect with which we have been evolved, the other does not. The -thread running through most of these essays is the attempt to discover -and apply in certain fields as much as possible of this scientific -conception to several different fields of reality. - -Of these essays, “Progress” has already appeared in the _Hibbert -Journal_, “Biology and Sociology” in the _Monist_, “Ils n’ont que de -l’âme” and “Philosophic Ants” in the _Cornbill Magazine_, “Rationalism -and the Idea of God” in the _Rationalist Press Annual_, and “Religion -and Science” in _Science and Civilization_, this year’s representative -of the annual “Unity” series edited by Mr. F. S. Marvin and published -by the Oxford University Press. They have all, however, been -considerably revised and enlarged before appearing in the present -volume. I have to thank the proprietors and publishers for kindly -permitting me to reprint these. - -OXFORD, -_April 1923_. - - - - -CONTENTS - - I PROGRESS, BIOLOGICAL AND OTHER 3 - - II BIOLOGY AND SOCIOLOGY 69 - -III ILS N’ONT QUE DE L’ÂME: AN ESSAY ON BIRD-MIND 107 - - IV SEX BIOLOGY AND SEX PSYCHOLOGY 133 - - V PHILOSOPHIC ANTS: A BIOLOGIC FANTASY 177 - - VI RATIONALISM AND THE IDEA OF GOD 207 - -VII RELIGION AND SCIENCE: OLD WINE IN NEW BOTTLES 235 - - - - -I - -PROGRESS, BIOLOGICAL AND OTHER - - - EVOLUTION: AT THE MIND’S CINEMA - - I turn the handle and the story starts: - Reel after reel is all astronomy, - Till life, enkindled in a niche of sky, - Leaps on the stage to play a million parts. - - Life leaves the slime and through all ocean darts; - She conquers earth, and raises wings to fly; - Then spirit blooms, and learns how not to die,-- - Nesting beyond the grave in others’ hearts. - - --I turn the handle: other men like me - Have made the film: and now I sit and look - In quiet, privileged like Divinity - To read the roaring world as in a book. - If this thy past, where shall thy future climb, - O Spirit, built of Elements and Time! - - MUNICH, _Jan. 1923_. - - - - -PROGRESS, BIOLOGICAL AND OTHER - - - “Usus et impigrae simul experientia mentis - Paulatim docuit pedetemtim progredientes.” - --LUCRETIUS. - - - “As natural selection works solely by and for the good of each - being, all corporeal and mental environments will tend to progress - towards perfection.” - --CHARLES DARWIN. - - - “Social progress means the checking of the cosmic process at every - step and the substitution for it of another which may be called - the ethical process.” - --T. H. HUXLEY. - - - “It is probable that what hindered Kant from broaching his - theory of progress with as much confidence as Condorcet was his - perception that nothing could be decisively affirmed about the - course of civilization until the laws of its movement had been - discovered. He saw that this was a matter for future scientific - investigation.” - --J. B. BURY. - - -What is the most fundamental need of man? It would be interesting to -conduct a plebiscite of such a question, a plebiscite of the same sort -that was conducted by one of the French newspapers some years ago, -to discover the opinions of its readers as to who was the greatest -Frenchman of the century. - -When I say the most fundamental need of man, I do not mean those basic -needs for food and drink and shelter which he shares with the animals: -I mean the most fundamental to him _as man_, as an organism differing -from all other organisms in the power of thought, in reflection and -self-consciousness. What variety of answers would be given, I dare not -guess; but I hazard the belief that the majority, if the suggestion -were put before them, would agree that his deepest need was to discover -something, some being or power, some force or tendency, which was -moulding the destinies of the world--something not himself, greater -than himself, with which he yet felt that he could harmonize his -nature, in which he could repose his doubts, through faith in which he -could achieve confidence and hope. - -That need has been felt by all those to whom life has been more -than a problem of the unreflective satisfaction of instincts and -desires--however pure those instincts, or beautiful those desires; -it has been felt by all in whom the problem of existence has been -apprehended by intellect and disinterested imagination. - -I say all. There may be rare creatures who, secure in strength of body -and mind and in unhampered unfolding of their faculties, possess a -confidence by which this need is never felt. They are like those whom -Wordsworth drew for us in the “Ode to Duty”:-- - - - “There are who ask not if thine eye - Be on them; who, in love and truth, - Where no misgiving is, rely - Upon the genial sense of youth: - Glad hearts! without reproach or blot; - Who do thy work and know it not.” - - -But such are rare; or should we say that their type of mind, though -not uncommon in the earlier years of life, only by the rarest chance -achieves its course without a descent into that vale where the finite -human intellect grapples unequally with infinite problems? - -The need has been felt in all ages and in all countries; and the -answers, the partial satisfactions of the needs which have been found -by the mind of men, are correspondingly diverse. - -Savages have endowed the objects around them, living and inanimate, -with supernatural qualities. At a higher grade of development they -have created gods made with hands, visible images of their fears or -their desires, by whose worship and service they assuaged the urgent -need within their breast. Still later, turning from such crudity, they -became servants and worshippers of unseen gods, conceived under the -form of persons, but persons transcending human personality, beings in -whom was vested the control of man and of the world. - -Up to this point there had been an increase of spirituality in the -constructions by which human thought satisfied its need; none the less, -the ideas underlying the mode of these constructions had not materially -altered. As Voltaire so pungently put it, man had created God in his -own image. - -What remains? there remains to search in the external world, to find -there if possible a foundation of fact for the belief drawn from the -inner world of mind, to test the conceptions of a supreme being or -supereminent power against ever more and more touchstones of reality, -until the most sceptical shall acknowledge that the final construction -represents, with whatever degree of incompleteness, yet not a mere -fragment educed to fill a void, however inevitable, to satisfy a -longing, however natural, but the summary and essence of a body of -verifiable fact, having an existence independent of the wishes or -ideals of mankind. - -It was the striving after some such certainty that led Matthew Arnold -to his famous definition of God as “something, not ourselves, which -makes for righteousness.” Dissatisfaction with the assertion that -belief in a very special and undemonstrable form of Divinity was -necessary as an act of faith has, in a large measure, helped the -widespread revulsion against orthodox Christianity. It was the need for -some external, ascertainable basis for belief which led such different -minds as William James and H. G. Wells to approach religion, and in -such diverse ways as in the “Varieties of Religious Experience” and in -“God the Invisible King.” It is this same need which is leading the -representatives of Christianity to lay ever greater stress upon the -reality and pragmatic value of the religious experience, less and less -upon dogmas and creeds. - -It will be my attempt in this brief paper to show how the facts of -evolutionary biology provide us, in the shape of a verifiable doctrine -of progress, with one of the elements most essential to any such -externally-grounded conception of God, to any construction which shall -be able to serve as permanent satisfaction of that deepest need whereof -we have spoken. - -Any such construction must take account of many separate parts of -reality. In the first place, it must consider those realities inherent -in the mind of man: his desire for goodness; the sense of value which -all agree is attached to certain experiences of mystics and to certain -religious emotions; his ideals and their importance for the conduct of -life. But in the second place it must consider those realities which -are independent of man and of his mind--the ascertainable body of hard -fact, those things which existed before ever he existed, which would -exist were he to disappear, with which he must struggle as best he may. -Lastly, there is the need for intermediation between the one and the -other reality, between the inner _felt_ and the outer _known_. - -Mr. Wells,[1] if you remember, erected a new trinitarianism, which in -broad outlines corresponded with this division. With his particular -construction, I do not in many respects agree. But that some form -of trinitarianism is a reasonably natural method of symbolizing the -inevitable tripleness of inner experience, outer fact, and their -interrelation is obvious enough. In the particular trinitarianism -of Christianity, the reality apprehended to exist behind the forces -of Nature is called the Father, the upspringing force within the -mind of man, especially when it seems to transcend individuality and -to overflow into what we designate as the mystical, is called the -Holy Ghost, and the activity, personal or vicarious, which mediates -between the individual and the rest of the universe, reconciling -his incompleteness and his failures with its apparent sternness and -inexorableness, is called the Son. - -Some men lay more weight on one of these aspects than on the others. -I know a clergyman of the Church of England who, on being reproached -during a theological argument with failure to pay sufficient respect -to the doctrine of God the Father, replied: “I am not interested in -God the Father”; and I know intellectually-minded men who wish to -reject the validity of all religious experience because their minds -are so made that they pay more attention to external fact and because -their reason refuses to let them agree with the interpretations of -fact propounded by most religious bodies. But, for a properly balanced -construction, for the finding of something which shall serve not as the -basis of a creed for this or that sect, but of a creed for humanity, of -something which instead of dividing shall unite, we need all aspects. - -The idea of Progress constitutes, as I hope to show, the most important -element in the first part of our construction--that which attempts to -synthesize the facts of Nature; and besides, no inconsiderable portion -of the third, the interrelation of inner and outer. - -Readers of Bury’s interesting book on the Idea of Progress[2] will -perhaps, with me, have been surprised at the modernity of that -conception. He shows how, in antiquity, the idea was never a dominant -one, and further that the adumbrations made of it all lacked some -element without which it cannot be styled progress in the sense in -which that word is used to-day. - -Not indeed till the late Renaissance can we say that the idea of -Progress became in any real sense incorporated with the common thought -of Western civilization. From then to the present it has suffered -many vicissitudes. Starting in the XVIIth century as little more than -a consciousness of the superiority of the present over the past, in -the XVIIIth it changed to a dogma, its adherents claiming that there -existed a “Law of Progress” leading inevitably to the perfectioning -of humanity. In the XIXth century the dogma was questioned, and -thinkers began to put it to the test--the test of comparing theory with -historical fact. A new lease of life, however, was given to the idea of -a law of progress by the evolution theory; but finally, of late years, -there has been a marked reaction, leading not only to a denial of any -such inevitable law, but often to a questioning of the very existence -of Progress in any shape or form. - -It is the business of the philosopher and of the biologist to see -whether this scepticism be justified, and to find out by a more -scientific approach how much of the doctrine of Progress is valid. -To the layman it would seem inevitable, once the validity of the -evolution theory was granted, to concede the fact of Progress in some -form or another. If we accept the doctrine of evolution, we are bound -to believe that man has arisen from mammals, terrestrial from aquatic -forms, vertebrates from invertebrates, multicellular from unicellular, -and in general the larger and the more complex from the smaller and -simpler. To the average man it will appear indisputable that a man is -_higher_ than a worm or a polyp, an insect _higher_ than a protozoan, -even if he cannot exactly define in what resides this highness or -lowness of organic types. - -It is, curiously enough, among the professional biologists that -objectors to the notion of biological progress and to its corollary, -the distinction of higher and lower forms of life, have chiefly been -found. I say curiously enough, and yet to a dispassionate observer it -is perhaps not so curious, but only one further instance of that common -human failing, the inability to see woods because of the trees that -compose them. - -That is as it may be. Our best course will be to start by examining -some of the chief objections to the idea of biological progress, in -order to see if they involve errors of thought which we may then avoid. - -The most widespread of all the objections raised may, I think, be -fairly put as follows: “The fundamental attribute of living beings -is adaptation to environment. A man is not better adapted to his -environment than the flea which lives upon him as a parasite, or than -the bacillus which kills him, nor is a bird better adapted to air than -a jelly-fish to water; therefore we have no right to speak of one as -higher than the other, or to regard the transition from one type to -another as involving progress.” - -A second class of objector is prepared to admit that there has been -an increase of complexity, an increase in the degree of organization -during evolution, but refuses to allow that increase of complexity -has any value in itself, whether biological or philosophical, and -accordingly refuses to dignify this trend towards greater complexity by -the name of progress. - -Yet a third difficulty is raised by those who ask us to fix our -attention on forms of life like Lingula, the lamp-shell, which, though -millions of years elapse, do not evolve. If there exists a Law of -Progress, they say, how is it that such creatures are exempt from its -operations? - -Finally, a somewhat similar attitude is adopted by those who refuse -to grant that evolution can involve progress when it has, as we know, -brought about well-nigh innumerable degenerations. Granted, for -instance, they would say, that the average Crustacean is in many ways -an improvement upon the simple form of life from which we must suppose -that it arose, yet we know that within the group of Crustacea there are -several lines of descent which have led to the production of parasitic -forms--animals in which the activity and complex organization of the -ancestral type has been sacrificed, and as end-product we are presented -with a hateful being, an almost shapeless mass consisting of little -else but over-developed reproductive organs and mechanisms for sucking -nutriment from its unfortunate host. Such a result is revealed to us -in the Crustacean form Sacculina, and is paralleled by countless other -examples in almost every class of animals. The degradation of parasites -and sedentary types is equally a product of the evolutionary process -with the genesis of the ant, the bird or the human being; how then can -we call the evolutionary process progressive? - -These are important objections. Can they be met? In the broadest way -they can and must be met by the only possible method, the method of -Science, which consists in examining facts objectively, and by drawing -conclusions not a priori, but a posteriori. A law of Nature is not (and -I wonder how often this fallacy has been exploded, only to reappear -next day)--a law of Nature is not something revealed, not something -absolute, not something imposed on phenomena from without or from -above; it is no more and no less than a summing-up, in generalized -form, of our own observations of phenomena; it is an epitome of fact -from which we can draw several conclusions. By beginning in this way -from the very beginning, by examining the basis of our mode of thinking -in natural science, only thus are we enabled to see at one and the same -moment how to investigate the question of progress on the constructive -side, and how to neutralize the force of the objections to the idea. - -Questions of fact are simple to deal with. It is indubitable that some -forms of life remain stationary and unevolving for secular periods; it -is equally indubitable that degeneration is widespread in evolution. -These are facts. But we are not therefore called upon to deny the -possibility of progress. To do so would be to fall into the error -of reasoning which we have already condemned. It remains for us to -take these facts into account when examining the totality of facts -concerning organic life, and to see whether, in spite of them, we -cannot discover a series of other facts, a movement in phenomena, which -may still legitimately be called progress. To deny progress because of -degeneration is really no more legitimate than to assert that, because -each wave runs back after it has broken, therefore the tide can never -rise. - -Similarly with the first two objections. If the degree of adaptation -has not increased during evolution, then it is clear that progress -does not consist in increase in adaptation. But it does not follow -that progress does not exist; it may quite well consist in an increase -of other qualities. So with complexity. Complexity has increased, but -increase in complexity is not progress, say the objectors. Granted: -but may there not be something else which has increased besides mere -complexity? - -No; the remedy for all our difficulties, and indeed the only way in -which we can arrive at the _possibility_ of saying whether biological -progress exists or no, is to adopt the positive method. - -Let us then begin our survey of biological evolution in the endeavour -to find whether or no progress is visible there. To start with, we must -be clear what are the sources of our knowledge on the subject. - -Direct observation of progressive evolution has, of course, not yet -been possible in the period--biologically negligible--in which man has -directed his attention to the problem; and historical record is also -absent. The best available evidence is that of paleontology: here the -relative positions of the layers of the earth’s crust enable us to -deduce their temporal sequence--and naturally, that of the organisms -whose fossil remains they embalm--with a great deal of accuracy.[3] - -We can scarcely ever observe the direct transition from the forms of -life in an older to those in a younger stratum, nor can we absolutely -prove their genetic relationship. But in a vast number of cases it is -abundantly clear that the later type of organization is descended from -the former--that a group of forms in the younger stratum had its origin -in one or more species of the group to which the forms in the older -stratum belong. Sometimes, however, as in many groups of mammals, the -gaps are few and small, the seriation almost complete. In any event we -have here evidence which, so far as it goes, is perfectly admissible -for the main lines and for many of the smaller branches of evolutionary -descent. - -Unfortunately, it does not go very far--or, we had better say, it is -of restricted application. By the time we find well-preserved fossils -in the rocks, the main groups of the animal kingdom and their chief -subdivisions had been already differentiated, with the one important -exception of the vertebrates; while time, heat, and pressure have -so modified the earlier strata as to destroy the fossil forefathers -of insects, molluscs, crustacea, and the rest, which they must have -contained. - -Within the vertebrate stock, then, we can learn a great deal from -the semi-direct methods of paleontology: but for the history of the -other groups and for their origin and interrelations, we are driven -back upon comparative anatomy and embryology, into another field of -more circumstantial evidence. When, for instance, we find that the -fore-limbs of bat, bird, whale, horse, and man, although so different -in function and in detail of structure, are yet built upon the same -general plan, and upon a plan wholly different from that of the -limbs, say, of a spider or an insect, we must either deny reason and -say that this similarity means nothing; or assume that its cause -is supernatural, outside the province of science, that it is the -expression of some eternal Idea, or some plan of a personal creator -(in which case, be it noted, the idea or the plan often appears to -our intellect as unreasonable and indeed stupid); or finally that it -implies community of origin with later divergence of development. When -we are dealing with the smaller sub-divisions of some larger group, -this method too gives us information of the same order of accuracy as -does paleontology: but when we try to understand the relationships -of these larger groups, then we are forced to renounce any claim to -detailed knowledge. In broad outline, however, a great deal still -remains, and this broad outline we can employ for our valuation of the -whole sweep of biological progress, just as we can use the greater -accuracy of vertebrate paleontology and comparative morphology to fill -in the detail within a restricted field of its operation. From these -various evidences, direct and indirect, we can paint for ourselves a -picture of the evolution of life which, in spite of inevitable gaps and -errors, is in its main features adequate and true. - -Let us not be misled by the fact that disputes can and justifiably do -arise over details: as Professor Bateson put it recently[4]:-- - -“If the broad lines do not hold, then we must sink into irrationality -or turn to flagrant supernaturalism.” - -Let us then remind ourselves of some of these broad lines. - -We know that there was a time when the earth, hot and fiery, could -not have been the abode of life. Of the first origins of life we know -nothing and guess little. What we can justifiably surmise is that -the protoplasm of the original organisms was not yet differentiated -into cytoplasm and nucleus, and that sexuality had not yet arisen. -The bacteria, however specialized in other ways, are still in this -primitive condition. - -Later, we can with great probability infer that the independent -units into which the stuff of life was subdivided reached a size -which, though still minute, was at least not beyond or even close to -the limits of microscopic vision; they were further provided with a -nucleus, and occasionally underwent sexual fusion. In other words, they -showed an organization which we call cellular; they were free-living -cells. Such unicellular creatures must have been at one epoch sole -inhabitants of the earth, and diverged into the most manifold types of -structure and modes of life. Such of them as led an animal as opposed -to a plant type of existence would be classified under the Protozoa or -unicellular animals.[5] - -The colonial habit gives advantages of increased size and greater -rapidity of motion, of which many Protozoa have availed themselves. A -colonial existence once attained, division of labour, at first between -the germinal and the somatic, later between different types of somatic -units, will be a further advantage. Such organisms, of which we cannot -say definitely whether they are compound aggregates or single wholes, -would represent the most natural link between the unicellular Protozoan -and the rest of the animal kingdom, the multicellular forms or Metazoa. -And indeed such organisms exist at the present day--organisms such as -Volvox, Zoothamnium, Proterospongia, and Myxidium--as adjuvant and -confirmatory of our reasonable faith. - -The multicellular organisms appear to have originated twice over, by -divergent routes. There are the true Metazoa, to which belong all the -higher types, and the Parazoa or sponges, which have never passed -beyond a very primitive type of structure. Both start as simple sacs, -whose walls are formed from two primary sheets or layers of cells. -Leaving sponges out of account, the Hydroid polyps are the simplest -representative of this grade of structure, while some of the Jelly-fish -and Siphonophores have attained the utmost limit of its inherent -possibilities. - -The next great step was the intercalation of a third primary layer -between the other two. The result of this, the so-called triploblastic -type of organization, gives the ground-plan for all subsequent -organizations; and later evolution consists mainly in the evolution of -this ground-plan. - -In other words, we can now pass from the consideration of the general -plan of life’s architecture to that of its details. During the next -great tract of time, that which was novel in life (for we must not -be guilty of a _petitio principii_ in yet speaking of “advance” or -“progress”) was brought about in two main ways--by an increase in -the size of organisms, and by an increase in the efficiency of their -working. - -The simplest Metazoa, such as the polyps, as well as the simplest -three-layered forms, such as the free-living flat-worms, are all small, -composed of an amount of material comparable with that contained in a -single one of our hairs. In every group of Metazoa, increase of size is -one of the main features that accompanies specialization, and the more -specialized groups possess a higher average size than the less. - -A jelly-fish against a polyp; a cuttle-fish against a primitive -mollusc; a vertebrate against its chordate ancestor; the giant reptiles -of the late secondary period against their forbears; a horse against -Phenacodus; man against the earliest primates--over and over again does -size increase with the march of time. - -Not only this, but when there occurs aggregation of individuals to -form units of a higher order, as in bees and ants and termites, and in -man himself, there too increase of size in the new units thus produced -is one of the most notable features. Is not human history in large -measure the history of the increase in size of social units? - -But size alone is not enough; there is also a definite improvement of -the details of life’s mechanism--partly revealed as improvement in the -efficiency of the parts themselves, partly in the adjustment of the -parts to each other, and their subordination to the needs of the whole. - -It is scarcely necessary to detail the improvements in efficiency of -different organs during evolution: such are universally familiar. But -a few examples will point my moral. The lowest three-layered forms -have no circulatory system; this, rendered necessary later by increase -of size, shows a gradual differentiation of parts in evolution. The -exquisite machinery of our heart is directly descended from a minute -pulsating ventral vessel such as that seen in Amphioxus. Protection and -support are better cared for in insect than in worm, in mammal than in -lamprey. But the most spectacular improvement of function, the most -important of all the directional movements in evolution has been that -affecting the nervous system and the sense-organs associated with it. -Few people who have not gone carefully into the subject realize how -imprisoned and windowless are the existences led by lower forms of life. - -Even such physically well-organized creatures as Crustacea stand at -an amazingly low mental level. The other day I was reading a careful -account of experiments on the behaviour of crabs. The method by which -the sexes recognize each other is so crude that I am not sure whether -it deserves the term recognition at all. Before mating, which takes -place immediately after a moult, the female is carried about for some -time in the claws of the male. The mature males will attempt to lift -up and carry off any members of the same species, male or female: but -the only ones which will permit themselves to be thus carried about are -females just before moulting. Hence by a general instinct to lift any -members of the same species on the part of the males, and on the part -of the females an instinct to allow themselves to be lifted when in -the physiological condition which precedes moulting, the required end -is brought about. But of any mental operation such as is involved in -sex-recognition in man or any other mammal, there is no evidence. - -Fish, to take another example, possess associative memory; they can -learn. But they learn very slowly, and learn only the simplest things. -The jump from their powers of memory to those of a dog, who can be -trained comparatively quickly to carry out complicated tricks, is as -great as the further jump from the powers of a dog to those of a man -capable of learning a page of print by heart in two or three readings. - -The first organs connected with mind to become elaborated are the -organs of sense: but such _receptor_ organs are useless to their -possessor, however elaborate, unless put into relation with proper -_effector_ organs--organs for action, whether locomotor or secretory. -So that the first steps are the elaboration of sense-organs, the -increase of efficiency of muscles and glands, and, equally essential, -the construction of an improved “_adjustor system_,” whereby the -stimulus falling on the sense-organ may be translated into action and -into the right kind of action. This adjustor mechanism is the central -nervous system. Most of the further history of organisms may be summed -up in one phrase--the evolution of adjustor mechanisms. - -At first, it is chiefly of importance to be brought into relation with -more and more of the happenings of the outer world, to be able to see -and hear and feel and smell more and more delicately; and to react upon -the outer world more and more efficiently and powerfully, to be able -to move and to handle matter more quickly and with finer and finer -adjustment. - -But unless the adjustor mechanism be improved, this process soon tends -to a limit. I may illustrate my meaning by a simple supposition. -Suppose an organism capable of very little beyond reflexes and -instincts and with but a scanty dose of associative power: of what -conceivable use to it would be a telescope or a telephone? Man obtains -a biological advantage from such accessory sense-organs in that, when -thus apprised of events at a distance, he is enabled to plan out -courses of action to meet the events which he imagines are going to -overtake him: but both planning and imagination are entirely functions -of an adjustor mechanism, and without such a mechanism, great -enlargement of sensory power would only result in an organism reacting -too often and unnecessarily to events in its environment. - -There is, in fact, an obvious limit to the perfection which can be -attained by receptor and effector organs. Striated muscles, the -modelling of the skeleton and joints for speed in a horse or greyhound, -the eye and ear of higher vertebrates, the mammalian sense of smell--no -doubt it would be possible for life to have produced more perfect and -more efficient mechanisms--but not, apparently, mechanisms _much_ -more perfect or _much_ more efficient. They stand near the limit of -biological efficiency. - -There thus comes a time when it is impossible or extremely difficult -to give an organism advantage in the struggle by improving its -sense-organs or its locomotor system, or indeed any of its general -physical construction, whereas it is still possible to confer the most -important advantages upon it by means of improvements in the adjustor -mechanism, improvements which involve and imply improvements of mind. - -This stage was reached by mammals and birds quite early in the Tertiary -period; and one of the most striking spectacles of biology, revealed -in the fossils of successive strata, is to see Mind coming into its -own after this epoch. Over and over again a group of animals is seen -to appear and spread, only to be extinguished and replaced by another -type which to all outward appearance is similar, no better adapted -to the conditions of life. But the two types differ in one point: the -later possessed a larger brain, and so, from all analogy, a better -mind. Or, to take another example, man differs from the lower animals -in no notable _physical_ specialization except the upright posture. - -After this critical point in the evolution of organisms was reached, -further development has consisted chiefly in the development of mind: -and this has meant, from the objective, purely biological standpoint, -the possibility of summing-up ever more and more power and fine -adjustment of response in the present, in the single act.[6] - -The first main function of the improved adjustor mechanism was to make -ever more complicated actions possible; but this again tended speedily -to a limit. The next step was to make it possible for the past to -act in the present. Through associative memory, present behaviour is -modified by past experience. What this has meant to organisms can be -realized if we reflect that certain terms which can justly be applied -to a mammal or a bird have no real meaning if applied to lower forms. -If we speak of a cunning wolf or a wary crow, we imply that their life -has taught them new qualities; but it is nonsense to talk of a cunning -crab, and, though we might properly ascribe wariness to a trout, I -would not like to speak of a wary Amoeba. In the same way we can -justifiably say that one dog is affectionate, another intelligent: -but to speak of an affectionate earthworm or an intelligent snail has -no more proper significance than it would be to say that a dog was -intellectual or religious. - -Quickness of learning then became of importance; but so long as the -faculty of generalizing is absent, associative memory, although -liberating organisms from the prison of a fixed and inherited -mental constitution, still pins them down to the accidental and the -particular; an organism can only learn to react to those particular -experiences which chance has decreed that it should have had. - -The next and last salient step in evolution was a double one. Which -of its two parts came first is hard to say; probably they acted -reciprocally throughout. This step was, on the one hand, the attainment -of the power of generalization--of reason, concept-formation, or what -you will--and on the other the origin of tradition, which in its turn -was made possible by the acquisition of speech and of a gregarious mode -of life. By these means, the human species and its evolving ancestors -were gradually enabled, first, to free experience ever more and more -from the accidental and to store what was essential; and, secondly, to -bring gradually more and more of the experience of the whole race to -bear upon the present problem, and to plan further and further ahead, -and on a larger and larger scale. - -This has meant, among other things, that for the first time in -biological history there has been an aggregation (in the technical -biological sense) of minds. Over and over again in evolution does -the process of aggregation appear.[7] It is an advantage, for at one -jump it lands life on a new level of size, with new possibilities of -division of labour and specialization. It appears in the aggregation -of Protozoa to form the colonial ancestor of all higher, many-celled -forms. It appears again on this new level in the aggregation of hydroid -polyps, of polyzoa, of ascidians, and especially in the beautiful -floating Siphonophora, in which the polyp-like units (themselves -historically aggregates of cells) have become so subordinate in -relation to the whole that they can often scarcely be recognized as -individuals, and the individuality of the aggregate is much more marked -than that of its components. It appears in a new way in the Termites -and in the social Hymenoptera--ants, bees, and wasps. Here the bonds -uniting the members of the aggregate are not physical but mental, -their sense-impressions and instincts; but the principle is identical -throughout. Finally in man we have not merely aggregation of physical -individuals held together by mental bonds, but aggregation of minds as -well as of physical individuals. - -In many mammals and birds, each generation can extend its influence -on to the next, and the experience of the parents is in part made -available to the offspring. But never until the origin of speech was -it possible for a whole series of generations to be linked together -by experience, never could experience be cumulative, never could one -mind know what another mind, remote in time, had been thinking or -feeling. Biologically, evolution since the time of origin of this new -process has consisted essentially in the enlargement and specialization -of aggregations of minds, and the improvement of the tradition which -constitutes the mode of inheritance for these aggregations--that -tradition which, like Hugo’s “Nef magique et suprême” of human destiny, -will eventually have “fait entrer dans l’homme tant d’azur qu’elle a -supprimé les patries.” - -It will, I hope, have been clear, even from the few examples which -I have given, that there has been a main direction in evolution. At -the close of the paper I shall try to point out that since motion in -this direction has led to the production of an increasing intensity -of qualities which we are unanimous in calling valuable, since in -other words the application of our scale of values tends in the same -direction as has the march of evolutionary history, that therefore -we are justified in calling this direction progressive, and indeed -logically compelled to give to motion in this direction a name which, -like progress, implies the idea of value. - -I shall therefore, from now on, use the term _biological progress_ to -denote movement in the direction which we have sketched in outline, -and shall shortly proceed to define more accurately. In so doing, I -perhaps beg the question, to be proved I hope later, as to whether the -observed direction is progressive: but I no longer beg the question of -whether evolution is a directional process. However we may argue on -the facts, the facts remain: and the facts are that there has been an -increase in certain qualities of organisms, both physical and mental, -during geological time. - -Meanwhile, let it be remembered, the simplest forms have survived side -by side with the more complex, the less specialized with the more -specialized. Even when we can trace a causal relation between the rise -of one group and the decay of another, as with the mammals and birds on -the one hand, and the reptiles on the other, even then numbers of the -defeated group continue to exist. Thus, in broad terms, evolution is -not a transformation, be it progressive or no, of the whole of living -matter, but of a part of it. - -I will endeavour to sum up, in brief, what seem to me the salient -points of that process, a sketch of which, inevitably hasty and -inadequate, I have just tried to give. - -During the time of life’s existence on this planet, there has been -an increase, both in the average and far more in the upper level, of -certain attributes of living things. - -In the first place there has been an increase in their size, brought -about by two methods, first by the increase of size of the units of -life themselves (cells, metazoan individuals, communities), secondly -by their aggregation; and this has been accompanied by a (very roughly) -parallel increase in the duration of life. - -Next, there has been an increase in their complexity; and this in its -turn depends upon the fact that a division of labour has been brought -about between the parts of organisms, each part becoming specialized -for greater efficiency in the performance of some particular function. -In the fewest words, the separate bits of machinery of which organisms -are composed have become more efficient. - -In the third place, there has been an increase in the harmony of these -parts, and consequently in the unity of the whole. Delicate mechanisms -for co-ordination have been developed, and arrangements whereby one -portion becomes dominant over the rest, and so a material basis for -unification is given. - -In the fourth place, there has been an increase of self-regulation. -The outer environment changes from month to month, from hour to hour. -The more complex products of evolution are in high degree exempt from -the consequences of these changes, through being the possessors of a -constant internal environment which, beyond the narrowest limits, it is -most difficult to alter. - -Fifthly, there has been an increase in the possibility of bringing -past experience to bear on present problems. At the base is the power -of modifying normal reactions with repetition; then come some simple -degrees of memory; then associative memory, as in birds and mammals, -for whom most reactions are not given in the inherited constitution, -but must be learnt; then rational memory, in which the power of -generalization liberates life from blind dependence upon the local and -the accidental; and finally tradition, whereby the amount of experience -available to the developing race is not constituted merely by the -isolated and limited experiences of its members, but by their sum. More -and more of the past becomes directly operative in the present; further -and further into the future can the aim of the present extend. - -Finally we can conclude with a high degree of certainty that the -psychical faculties--of knowing, feeling, and willing--have increased -in intensity, and also in their relative importance for the life of the -individual organism. - -We have condensed our summary into these six general statements; if -we wish to reach a still more general form, the most general form -possible, we can redistil it thus: During the course of evolution in -time, there has been an increase in the control exerted by organisms -over their environment, and in their independence with regard to it; -there has been an increase in the harmony of the parts of organisms; -and there has been an increase in the psychical powers of organisms, an -increase of willing, of feeling, and of knowing. - -This increase has not been universal; many organisms have remained -stationary or have even regressed; many have shown increase in -one particular but not in others. But the _upper level_ of these -properties of living matter has been continually raised, their average -has continually increased. It is to this increase, continuous during -evolutionary time, in the average and especially in the upper level of -these properties that, I venture to think, the term biological progress -can be properly applied. - -Used thus it is no more an a priori or an undefined concept. It is a -name for a complicated set of actual phenomena, and if, with progress -thus defined, we were to speak of a law of progress in evolution, we -should be using the term law in a perfectly legitimate way, as denoting -a generalization based on observed facts, and not as pre-supposing any -vitalistic principle of perfectibility, any necessary and mysterious -tendency of organisms to advance independently of circumstances. - -The gas laws state that the pressure of a gas kept at constant volume -increases in a particular way with increase of temperature. Now the -pressure of a confined gas depends on the rate at which its particles -bombard the walls in which they are contained, and the speed at which -they are travelling. In a gas whose temperature is raised, many -particles will, at any given moment, be travelling more slowly than the -average rate when it was cooler, many even which had been travelling -fast may now be travelling slowly. None the less, the average speed of -all the particles is greater; and this and nothing else is what with -perfect justification we sum up as our _law_. - -In biological evolution, some organisms degenerate, some remain -stationary, but the average of certain properties, and more especially -their upper level, increases; and this tendency for certain properties -to become more marked, this and nothing else, is what we sum up and -generalize, again with perfect justification, as the law of biological -progress. - -The mechanism of biological progress demands a word: for it is -noticeable that a mere fact, however well attested, makes a very -different kind of impression from a fact explained and brought into -relation with the rest of our knowledge. The impression is either less -powerful; or else, an explanation being sought for, an erroneous one is -found. It was Darwin’s great merit that, not content with the piling up -of evidence in favour of the reality of Evolution, he at the same time -advanced a theory which made it at least possible to understand how -Evolution could have come to pass as a natural process. The effect was -multiplicative on men’s minds, not merely additive, for facts are too -bulky to be lugged about conveniently except on wheels of theory. - -The fact of biological progress has struck many observers. Some have -been content to believe that the single magic formula of “Natural -Selection” would explain it adequately and without further trouble, -forgetting that there must be at least some points of difference -between a natural selection producing a degenerate type and natural -selection leading to progress. Some biologists have lumped it, -together with all other evolutionary processes which seem to show -us a development along predetermined lines, under the head of -_orthogenesis_--the (hypothetical!) tendency of organisms to unfold -just one type of hidden potentiality. Bergson has been particularly -struck with it: refuses to allow that it can have anything to do with -Natural Selection or any determinist process, and ascribes it to his -_élan vital_. - -Here, as so often elsewhere, Bergson reveals himself as a good poet but -a bad scientist. His intellectual vision of evolution as a fact, as -something happening, something whole, to be apprehended in a unitary -way--that is unsurpassed. He seems to see it as vividly as you or I -might see a hundred yards race, holding its different incidents and -movements all in his mind together to form one picture. But he then -goes on to give a symbolic description of what he sees--and then -thinks that his symbols will serve in place of analytic explanations. -There _is_ an “urge of life”; and it is, as a matter of fact, urging -life up the steps of progress. But to say that biological progress is -explained by the _élan vital_ is to say that the movement of a train -is “explained” by an _élan locomotif_ of the engine: it is to fall -into the error, so often condemned in scientists by philosophers, and -ridiculed in both by satirists, of hanging or at least disposing of a -difficulty by giving it a long name. - -Let us think of the condition of life on earth at any given moment of -her evolution. Certain possibilities have been realized by her--others -have not. To take a trenchant example, before the Carboniferous or -thereabouts, the vertebrates had not realized their possibilities of -terrestrial existence--nearly half the globe’s surface lay waiting to -be colonized by backboned animals. The earth’s surface was conquered -then--but the air remained unsubdued before the mid-Secondary. In every -period, there must be not only actual gaps unfilled in the economy of -nature--such and such an animal is without parasites, such and such -a hot spring or salt lake is without tenants; but also improvements -can be made in existing types of organization--a tapeworm could be -more firmly attached, a salt-lake shrimp could tolerate an even higher -concentration of brine. - -These two sorts of possibilities really overlap. For instance, an -increased efficiency of vision must be an improvement in pre-existing -structures and creatures; it also involves the conquest of new regions -of environment, and so in a real sense the occupation of a new -biological niche. - -In any case, the changes which would confer advantage in the struggle -for existence may take place in any direction--with, or against, or at -right angles to the stream of progress. By means of those which march -with that stream, the upper level of life’s attainment is raised. -But the struggle still goes on: and again, starting from this new -condition, there will be variations in every direction which will have -survival value, and some of these will be progressive; and so the -upper level will be once more raised. - -The process will take time, for, whatever theory of variation we may -hold[8]--the old idea of small continuous variations; or that of large -mutations big enough to produce new species at one jump; or the most -probable theory of numerous small mutations--they one and all must -grant that the largest variation occurring at one time in a living -species is infinitesimal in comparison with the secular changes of -evolution. - -There will further be a premium upon progressive changes, since a -progressive change will generally land its possessor in virgin soil, -so to speak; if not in an actually new physical environment, then in a -biologically new situation. The placental mammal occupies the same dry -land as did the wonderful reptilian types of the Secondary epoch. But -constant temperature and embryonic nutrition within its mother provide -delicately adjusted conditions in the early phases of development which -in their turn enabled a more elaborate and more delicately responding -brain machinery to be constructed in development, and so advanced their -possessors on to new shores of control and independence. - -There will thus be a constant biological pressure (to use a term -which, though still symbolic, a mere analogy, is less misleading and -question-begging than _élan vital_) tending to push some of life on -to new levels of attainment, new steps in progress, _because_ any -variations in that direction will have selection value, a selection -value above the ordinary. And the process will be a gradual one, -because variations are not very large; so that life no more realizes -all potentialities of progress at once than did the United States or -any other new country receive a uniform population over all its extent -as soon as it was discovered, but had its people move in from the -coasts in a regular and orderly advance. - -There are plenty of parallels from human affairs. Indeed, the -evolutionist can often gain valuable light on his subject, on what -one may call the economics of the process, by turning to study the -development of human inventions and machines. There, although the -ways in which variations arise, and the way they are transmitted, are -different from those of organic evolution, yet the type of “pressure,” -the perpetual struggle, and the advantage of certain kinds of variation -therein--these are in essence really similar. - -What could be more striking than the parallel between the rise of the -mammals to dominance over the reptiles, and the rise of the motor -vehicle to dominance over that drawn by horses? - -In both cases, a comparatively long period in which the new type is in -a precarious and experimental stage, only just managing to exist, of -small size and rare occurrence, and in no real sense a serious rival to -its old-established competitors. Then, suddenly, a change. It reaches -a level at which it can effectively compete with them. What happens? -In the case both of man-made machine and evolving vertebrate group, -there is first a sudden increase in numbers of the new, a corresponding -decrease in numbers of the old type. The upper level of size of the -new type also begins to increase, and it begins to split up into a -great number of differentiated sub-types. Some of these sub-types -become extinct, others, on the other hand, are gradually improved, -while still others undergo such rapid change as to merit the style of -new sub-types. The upper level of size, complexity, and efficiency -increase, both in animal and machine. - -It is as well to remember that survival-value means only what it says. -A variation with survival-value helps its possessors to survive: it -is not the best possible variation of the kind. In the developing -motor-car, the substitution of four for one or two cylinders was a -great improvement. It had “survival-value”; and not until the majority -of cars came to be four-cylindered was the additional advantage of -six or eight cylinders large enough to bring them into existence as -dominant types. - -To the interrelated evolution of carnivore and herbivore, again, -leading to increase of size and speed in both, of wariness in one, of -tooth and claw in the other, we have again a close parallel in the -interrelated evolution of armour-plating and of projectiles. Here -again the process is gradual. We can further see that the sudden -“development” of full modern armour on the first iron-clad would -have been actually disadvantageous, since it would have reduced -its speed relatively to other less heavily protected ships, without -conferring any corresponding benefit in the way of defence against the -comparatively inefficient projectiles of the day. Only when the range -and piercing power of the projectiles increased did increase of armour -become imperative. - -To resume our pressure analogy, the natural increase of all organisms -leads to a “biological pressure.” So long as a species remains -unchanged, so long must it stay subjected to the full force of this -pressure. But if it changes in such a way that it can occupy a new -niche in environment, it is expanding into a vacuum or a region of -lower pressure. Natural increase soon fills this up to the same level -of pressure, and conditions thus become favourable for expansion into -new low-pressure areas previously out of reach of the normal range -of variation. Variation towards such “low-pressure” regions may be -progressive, retrogressive, or neutral: but it is obvious that at -each stage of evolution there will always be a low-pressure fringe, -representing a considerable fraction of the “low-pressure” area within -the range of variability, the occupation of which would be biologically -progressive. - -Thus from the well-established biological premisses of (1) the tendency -to geometrical increase with consequent struggle for existence, -(2) some form of inherited variability, we can deduce as necessary -consequence, not only the familiar but none the less fundamental -fact of Natural Selection, but also the almost neglected fact that -a _certain fraction_ of the guiding force of Natural Selection will -inevitably be pushing organisms into changes that are progressive. - -This will of course be true only so far as the general conditions of -the environment remain within certain limits: it is probable that too -great reductions of temperature or moisture on the surface of the -earth would lead to a gradual reversal of progress before the final -extinction of life. Up to the present, however, it is clear that such -conditions have not occurred, or, possibly, have occurred only for -short periods. The general state has been one in which steady, slow -progress has been achieved. Progress, like adaptation, is in pre-human -evolution almost entirely the resultant of blind chance and blind -necessity. - -What corollaries and conclusions may be drawn from the establishment -of the fact of biological progress? In the first place, it permits us -to treat human progress as a special case of a more general process. -Biologically speaking, the human species is young--not perhaps still -in infancy, but certainly not yet attained to any stable maturity. -The conception, common enough in much traditional thought, that man -as a species is old, far removed from all pristine vigour and power, -is demonstrably untrue. The genus Homo has not yet adapted itself -to the new conditions and the new possibilities arising out of the -acquisition of reason and tradition. Its history so far is a record of -experiment after experiment. From a period so short and so empirical -it is impossible to deduce any general law of progress. In certain -respects, as we shall see more in detail later, there has been advance; -in others, the species has been stationary. But whether humanity in -this or that particular has progressed is for the moment comparatively -immaterial. Humanity is part of life, a product of life’s movement; and -in life as a whole there is progress.[9] - -What is more, there was progress before man ever appeared on the earth, -and its reality would have been in no way impaired even if he had never -come into being. His rise only continued, modified, and accelerated a -process that had been in operation since the dawn of life. - -Here we find, in the intellectual sphere at least, that assurance which -men have been seeking from the first. We see revealed, in the fact of -evolutionary progress, that the forces of nature conspire together to -produce results which have value in our eyes, that man has no right -to feel helpless or without support in a cold and meaningless cosmos, -to believe that he must face and fight forces which are definitively -hostile. Although he must attack the problems of existence in a new -way, yet his face is set in the same direction as the main tide of -evolving life, and his highest destiny, the end towards which he has so -long perceived that he must strive, is to extend to new possibilities -the process with which, for all these millions of years, nature has -already been busy, to introduce less and less wasteful methods, to -accelerate by means of his consciousness what in the past has been the -work of blind unconscious forces. “In la sua volontade è nostra pace.” - -For this is one of the most remarkable facts of evolution--that -consciousness, until a very late period, has played in it a negligible -part. Indeed the rise of consciousness to become a factor of importance -in evolution has been one of the most notable single items of progress. -Darwin gave the deathblow to teleology by showing that apparently -purposive structures could arise by means of a non-purposive mechanism. -“Purpose” is a term invented to denote a particular operation of the -human mind, and should only be used where a psychological basis may -reasonably be postulated. On the other hand, a result can be attained -by conscious purpose without the waste of time and of living material -needed by the indirect method of natural selection; and thus the -substitution of purposed for unpurposed progress is itself a step in -progress. - -As another corollary of our concept of progress, it follows that we -can and should consider, not only the direction of any evolutionary -process, but also its rate. - -An evolutionary process, if it is to be considered progressive, must -have a component in one particular direction--a direction which we have -already defined. But this is not all; for even if it be moving in the -right direction, and yet be moving extremely slowly, it may, if it have -any interaction with a much more rapid progressive movement, actually -exert a drag on this; its relative motion--relative to the main current -of progress--will be backwards, and we may have to class it as the -reverse of progressive. For example, the interaction of carnivore and -herbivore, pursuer and pursued, led during the development of the -vertebrates to the evolution of much that was good--speed, strength, -alertness, and acuity of sense--and of many noble types of living -things. But with the advent of man, different methods have been -introduced, new modes of competition and advance; and the tiger and -the wolf not only cease to be agents of progress in its new form, -but definitely stand in its way and must be stamped out, or at least -reduced to a condition in which they can no longer interfere as active -agents in evolution. - -Some such considerations as these will help perhaps to resolve various -difficulties of ethics--how, for instance, that which seems good to me -may seem evil to another. Even the good, if it be a drag on the better, -is evil. Expressed thus, the proposition is a paradox; but expressed in -terms of direction and relative speed, it is at once intelligible. - -But the test of any such general biological theory as I have outlined -will be its application to human problems. And here too, I venture to -say, the value of biological method is apparent. What we ask, and -rightly ask, is whether in the laws of biological progress we can find -any principle which we can apply directly to guide us in devising -methods for human progress. - -I do not propose to follow the example of many rather hasty -philosophers and biologists, who have thought that, whenever the -study of lower organisms permitted the promulgation of a biological -law, such law can be lifted bodily from its context and be applied -without modification to human affairs. Man is an organism--but a very -exceptional and peculiar organism. Any biological law which epitomizes -only facts about the lower creatures is not a general biological law, -for general biological laws must take account not only of plants and -animals, but of man as well. In practice, however, the simplest method -is to frame our biological laws without considering man, and then to -see in what way they must be modified if they are to be applied to him. - -Man differs biologically from other organisms in the following main -ways. First, he has the power of thinking in concepts; in other words, -his power of learning by experience is not always conditioned directly -by the accidents of his own life, as is the case with animals endowed -only with associative memory, but he can, by reaching the general from -the special, attain to the possibility of dealing with many more, and -more complicated, eventualities. Next, by means of speech, writing, -and printing, he has developed a new mode of inheritance.[10] Each -community, and indeed humanity as a whole, transmits its peculiarities -to later ages by means of tradition, using that word in its largest -sense. Physical inheritance of the same type as in all higher animals -and plants is the necessary basis, but the distinctive characters -of any civilization are based on this new tradition-inheritance. -Thirdly, the type of mind which has been evolved in man is much more -plastic--a much more elastic and flexible mechanism than any tool -previously evolved by life for handling the problems of existence. As -a consequence of this we have the substitution of general educability -for specific instincts. For the power of performing comparatively -few actions smoothly and without trouble, there is exchanged the -possibility of a vastly increased range of action, but one which -has to be learnt. As another consequence, man has come by the -power--impossible to any other organism--of leading what is to all -intents and purposes a multiple existence. It is for this very reason -difficult to fit man into many of the ordinary biological categories. -The physical and mental structure and the mode of life of even the -highest of the animals are for all practical purposes a fixed quantity. -An ant, for all its delicacy of adjustment, is little less than a -sentient cog shaped to fit in just one way into the machinery of the -community; a dog, for all his power of learning, is tied down and -imprisoned within a rigidity and narrowness of bodily and mental -organization difficult for us to imagine. - -Man passes freely from one aggregation to another. He can -change his nation or his city; he can belong to a dozen -organizations--biologically speaking, can be aggregated in a dozen -different ways--and play a different part as unit in each. He can -follow one profession in the morning, another at night, and be a -hobby-horse rider in between. - -This plastic mind has endowed him with a new biological possibility. -He can do what no other organism can--he can be both specialized and -generalized at one and the same time. - -In biology, the aggregation of units to form units of higher grade has -been always followed by division of labour among the units; and this -division of labour has, in all infrahuman history, been made possible -only by an irreversible specialization.[11] A soldier-ant is a soldier, -and there its possibilities end. It cannot do what the worker or -the queen can do. A muscle-cell, because it has gained the power to -contract, is cut off from other possibilities; it cannot secrete, or -digest, or carry messages. The aggregate of nerve-cells which makes the -physical basis of mind is held fixed to its post, incapable of turning -to other functions. - -It follows that the units of all such aggregates are subordinate to -the whole--they have lost their independence, and can often no longer -be considered as individuals at all, except historically. But in man, -none of these things hold. A man can for half his day be the merest -cog, subordinate in every detail of his action to the needs of the -community, but for the other half be himself, a full and complete -individuality, making the community serve his own ends and needs. For -him, aggregation does not mean complete and irreversible subordination; -his specialization is reversible, and indeed his potentialities as an -individual actually increase with the increased individuality of the -aggregate to which he belongs. - -Bearing these differences in mind, we may turn to consider how our -doctrine of progress helps us in studying humanity. - -At the outset we must guard ourselves against the idea that human -society has reached any high level of biological individuation. I may -perhaps quote from what I have written elsewhere: “If we were to draw a -parallel between primitive types of society and some primitive mammal -such as a duck-billed platypus, and to compare the course which we -hope society will in time accomplish with what has been accomplished -in the progress of the mammalian type from a creature resembling the -platypus up to man, with what creature should we have to compare the -existing state of human communities? I venture to say that we should be -flattering ourselves if we were to fix upon the dog.” - -Then we must remember that Natural Selection in man has fallen chiefly -upon groups, not upon individuals, and differences in the nature and -organization of human groups are determined chiefly by what we can -best sum up as differences of tradition in the widest sense of the -term. The later history of mankind, from a period long antedating -written records, has been one of the rapid rise and equally rapid -extinction, not only of one group-unit after another, but of one type -of group-unit after another. It is further obvious at first glance that -the group-units, the types of society which are at present dominant, -are far from perfect and far from stable, and indeed that they are -evolving, with speed of change hitherto unsurpassed, towards new and -unknown forms. - -When the mammalian type first became dominant on the globe--at the -transition between the Secondary and Tertiary periods--a somewhat -similar history was passed through. The new type of organization gave -its possessors marked advantages over other animal types: but the full -potentialities of the mammal (excluding man) were not realized until -well over half of the Tertiary period had elapsed, and man was being -prepared in the womb of circumstance. The Pliocene sees the triumph -of the perfected types of mammal: the preceding Miocene, broadly -speaking, sees the first rise of these new types, while the Eocene and -Oligocene show us a rapid rise and as rapid extinction of variation -upon variation on the original theme.[12] With man, however, only the -beginnings of a similar process have as yet come to pass. - -Further, we must distinguish clearly between the different ways in -which progress may be operative in man. In the first place it can -appear, as we have just pointed out, in the organization of the -communities to which he belongs and on which natural selection seems -mainly to act. Secondly, it can appear as a raising of the _average_ of -certain qualities among the individuals composing those communities. -And thirdly, it can appear as a raising of the _upper level_ of -attainment in those qualities, in the appearance of individuals -biologically higher than any that have previously existed. - -This last point may be first dealt with. It has often been urged as -an argument against the doctrine of progress that we can trace no -advance in the capabilities of the individual man throughout history, -and it has even been asserted that no such advance has occurred during -pre-history. To this latter criticism there is the obvious reply that -at some period there was an origin of human from non-human organisms, -and that during the period of transition at least (and probably for a -considerable time afterward) there naturally must have been a raising -of the upper level of attainments, and still more of possibility. The -main point at issue, however, is not to be gainsaid. It appears[13] -that comparatively early in the evolution of man, there appeared, in -some branches of the stock, a type of mental organization which has -not yet been improved upon. An individual possessing it is capable, -when developing in proper environment (the most important single -elements of which are the organization and tradition of the community -to which he belongs) of attaining to possibilities which, measured in -terms of the potentialities of any previous organism, are wellnigh -boundless. He can survey the whole of mankind, penetrate the future -with prophecy, bring the gamut of experience within a work of art, -discover the laws by which the universe operates. Judged thus, Goethe -is no greater and no less great than Leonardo, Shakespeare than Dante -or Æschylus, Darwin than Pasteur, Kant than Plato. - -The best type of human mind operating to the best advantage, is -introduced to possibilities so vast in comparison with its paltry span -of existence that it can never realize more than a fraction of them. -Furthermore, since the incidence of natural selection has fallen, from -long before historical time, upon the community and its traditions far -more than upon the individual, and since the conditions under which -the possibilities of the individual can be even qualitatively realized -have been rarely forthcoming, it is not surprising that the level of -possibility itself has not been raised. Indeed, only too often there -has been reversed selection, and the exceptional man has suffered from -his exceptional endowments. - -There is no theoretical objection whatever to the idea that new -types of mind, new modes of thought, new levels of attainment, could -be reached by life: the mental difference between low types of men -and men of genius is almost as great as that between man and ape. -The difference in practical intelligence between a hen, a dog, a -chimpanzee, and a man is largely a difference in the complexity of the -situations which can be grasped as a whole so that the right way out -is adopted as the result of this unitary comprehension.[14] There is -no reason to doubt that other types of mental mechanism are possible -which would make our grasp of complex situations appear pitiful and -hen-like in its limitations, which would enable their possessors to -_see_ and solve in a flash where we can only grope and guess or at best -calculate laboriously and step by step. But this will not take place, -first until the community-environment is made as favourable as possible -for such development, and secondly until there is begun a deliberate -biological encouragement of new possibilities of intuition, say, or of -communication between mind and mind. - -As regards the second point, the raising of the average as opposed to -the upper level of attainment, not much need be said. That part of -our civilization which can be thought of as progressive is largely -concerned with this very thing--with making it possible for men to -realize in larger measure their inherent possibilities. Further, in -so far as there exists selection within the community, it largely, -under present conditions, encourages qualities such as intelligence -and initiative, which are biologically progressive. And finally, when -Eugenics shall become practical politics, its action, so far as we can -see, will be at first entirely devoted to this raising of the average, -by altering the proportion of good and bad stock, and if possible -eliminating the lowest strata, in a genetically mixed population.[15] - -Since, however, the main stress in human evolution has been upon the -community and upon tradition, it is here that we shall expect to find -most definite evidences of progress, and it is here that we do in fact -find them. - -We have in the first place the increase of the size of units, familiar -to us already in lower forms. This, however, is tending to a limit, -which will be attained when the present competition of sovereign states -has been replaced (as, if we can read the future from the past, it -inevitably will be) by some form of federation covering the globe. -We find an immense increase of control over environment--a theme so -hackneyed as to need no labouring. We find an almost equally striking, -if less spectacular, increase in independence. Man becomes less and -less at the mercy of the forces of nature and of other organisms, -attains much more to self-regulation. This has depended upon increased -efficiency of “organs”--here the extra-organismal organs we call -tools and machines; and upon increased rapidity and certainty of -communication both within and between units. There has been an almost -overwhelming increase (displaying too not a uniform but an accelerated -motion) of knowledge, of the possibilities of acquiring new knowledge, -and of what may be called the “group-memory”--the power of storing -and rendering knowledge available, and this in its turn brings about -a huge increase in the size of the environment with which man either -physically or mentally comes into contact. - -As regards increase of harmony or co-ordination, human communities -have advanced but little, although in the increase of powers of -communication there has been laid the foundation for such possibility. - -That this lack of progress is partly due to the extreme rapidity of -change in type of unit and of the units’ increase in size, is not -doubtful; a further ground for it, however, is to be found in the fact -that human societies present a new biological problem, in so much as -it is impossible, man being what he is, to solve the relationship of -individual and community, of smaller and larger unit, in the simple -way in which it has always been solved before--by specialization and -subordination of the individuals.[16] The early development of codes of -law, codes of ritual, and codes of morals represents the first attempt -at a solution of the problem: the modern rise of arbitration as a -method of settling disputes between whole units and large groups within -units is another important step in the same direction. Nevertheless, it -is here that the most drastic change of method will have to be brought -into being if man’s development is to continue progressive. - -There is, however, a weighty criticism of the validity of human -progress. Granted that human science and invention have made enormous -strides, that knowledge has increased and convenience multiplied--is -_man_, the living, feeling, personal human being, any the better in -essentials for all of this--has it not merely made life more complex at -the expense of its depth, more rapid at the expense of its tranquillity -and suavity? This is especially obvious in the field of art. It is -impossible to maintain that any one of a certain number--a hundred, or -perhaps a thousand--of great poets, painters, sculptors, or musicians -is greater or has achieved finer things than any other of the number. -What is more, in most arts--notably sculpture, painting, and poetry, -the possibilities of expression and achievement do not increase, and -once a certain pitch of skill is reached, tend to extinguish themselves -in technique and virtuosity. When this happens, new ideas generally -come upon the scene and work up again from a relatively primitive to a -complicated technique along a more or less different path--and so on -and so forth _ad infinitum_. - -This is not so true of architecture, and still less so of music. In -intellectual matters it is clearly not true of mathematics, where -each advance provides the foundation for the solution of more complex -problems, nor, similarly, of much of science. But even in this -intellectual domain, where the accumulation of knowledge is so evident, -where the increasing difficulty and complexity of the problems soluble -and solved is so remarkable--even here the individual achievement can -scarcely be properly said to increase, certainly not the individual -merit or the individual satisfaction. Newton’s achievement was no less -splendid because to-day any fourth-rate mathematician can use the -calculus, nor Euclid’s for that his discoveries can be explained to -every schoolboy; while for Harvey to discover the circulation of the -blood or for Dalton to demonstrate the particulate nature of matter -was certainly no slighter task than that needed to show the reality of -internal secretion or to discover the infra-atomic world of electrons. -The task occupied all their powers, its accomplishment satisfied them; -and the powers themselves have not increased--only the ways in which -men have learned to use them. - -This criticism has been partly dealt with before. We have seen that -the present organization of human mind introduces its possessor to -a practical infinitude of possibility. We have also seen that there -is no theoretical obstacle to be seen at present to an increase of -human powers, be it in range of comprehension, intensity of feeling, -or brilliance of intuition. More to our present purpose is the reply -that, whereas in all these ways the inherent capabilities have not -increased, yet the opportunities of realizing these capabilities have -for the bulk of the population increased--in particular, for instance, -of gratifying the more complex and the more intellectual emotions, -with the multiplication of theatres, of books, of pictures, of -concerts. Here, for once, the average has advanced more than the upper -level. Whatever overstress and maladjustment the complexity of modern -civilization has brought with it, it has certainly made it easier for -more men and women to realize more of their potentialities now than a -thousand years ago, and far more than a hundred thousand years ago. - -There are, then, these facts to set on the credit side of Progress’ -balance-sheet. It is easy enough to see items on the debit side, and -indeed to be so horrifiedly fascinated by it as not to have eyes -for anything else. Human history is in one view but a long record -of suffering, oppression, and folly. Slavery, torture, religious -persecution, war, pestilence and famine, the greed of those who -possess power, the dirt and sloth and ignorance of those who do -not--the elements of the picture keep on recurring, if not in the old -forms, then in new ones. Pain, disease, disappointment, and death are -inevitable. Even when a civilization seems to be progressing, there -always comes a time when it passes its zenith and topples through -decay or defect to ruin. How is it possible to speak of progress -when at this present moment there are vast poverty-stricken and slum -populations with all the great nations, and when these same great -nations have just been engaged in the most appalling war in history? - -It is a formidable indictment: but I venture to assert that it can be -met by the same argument with which, in the realm of biology, was met -the argument from degeneration. - -Such facts show at once that any idea of inevitable or of universal -progress is untenable, the product of an irrational idealism which -prefers its own desires to reality. They show further that, up to -the present, suffering and pain on the one hand, and on the other -degeneration in a certain number of individuals, are as universal and -apparently inevitable in human as in animal evolution. But they do not -show that some sort of progress may not have occurred--not necessarily -the kind of progress that some of us would like, not necessarily as -rapid as could be desired, but yet indubitably and solidly Progress. We -have seen that in the hundreds of thousands of species which constitute -life, that which has been increased most obviously is the upper level -of certain qualities--primitive forms have persisted, degenerate forms -have arisen side by side with and in spite of the steady improvement in -the highest types. This has happened in man also. - -The upper level of control and of independence in human group-units, -and in a certain number of fortunate individuals, has obviously -increased; but there are the slums, there are the drab lives of -thousands in great cities, there are poverty, degeneracy, and crime. -All that we can say is that to many at least it seems theoretically -possible that man should be able to reduce the amount of degeneration, -waste, and pain, to increase the changes to be summed up as progressive. - -The future Golden Age of Millenniarism is as impossible a notion -as the past Golden Age of Mythology, and more demoralizing. Bury, -with pardonable sarcasm, speaks of the result hoped for in it as “a -menagerie of happy men ... in which the dynamic character of history -disappears.” But once we have accepted (as the great majority accept) -life as somehow worth living, the belief in progress asserts only -(though there is much in that “only”) that life may be made more worth -living to a larger proportion of people, although effort and failure -always will and always must be conditions of its operation. As Goethe -said, “Let humanity last as long as it will, there will always be -hindrances in its way, and all kinds of distress, to make it develop -its powers.” - -It is important to remember, what we have already noted, that the -history of mankind is largely the history of competition between -group-units or communities. When rare communities have been able to -escape from this race of competition and have deliberately devoted the -energy and resources thus set free to better community-regulation and -an improvement in the lives of the individuals composing them, then, -like Denmark, they have moved rapidly along a path of real progress. -Once an efficient federation of communities has come into being, -Progress can knock at the door with some chance of being admitted. In -general, it is enough for our present purpose to have shown that some -modicum of progress has occurred within the species Man; and that some -of the characteristics which most saliently mark him off from other -organisms--his powers of generalization and his self-consciousness--are -in themselves germs, potentialities of great progress in the future, -because through them blind biological progress can become economical, -foreseeing, and conscious of herself. - -There remains for me only one task--to investigate more closely the -relation of that fact of evolutionary direction which we have called -biological progress, to our ideas of value. What we have found is that -there exists a certain general direction of movement in the evolution -of living things; towards the increase of certain of their properties. -But when we make a further analysis, we find that movement in this -direction is movement towards a realization of the things judged by the -human mind to have value. It is movement towards an increase of power, -of knowledge, of purpose, of emotion, of harmony, of independence. -Increases in these faculties combine, once a certain stage in mental -development is reached, to mean the embracing of ever larger syntheses -by the organism possessing them--practical syntheses, as in business, -or exploration, or administration; intellectual, as in philosophy or in -the establishment of scientific laws; emotional, as in love or in the -passion for nature; artistic, as in a symphony or great drama. These -capabilities are greater in man than in the higher animals, in the -higher animals than in the lower, more and more windows being closed -and powers pruned away as we descend the scale. - -It is immaterial whether the human mind comes to have these values -_because_ they make for progress in evolution, or whether things which -make for evolutionary progress become significant _because_ they happen -to be considered as valuable by human mind, for both are in their -degree true. There is an interrelation which cannot be disentangled, -for it is based on the fundamental uniformity and unity of the cosmos. -What is important is that the human idea of _value_ finds its external -counterpart in an actual historical _direction_ in phenomena, and that -each becomes more important because of the relationship. - -Much of what I have written will appear obvious. But if it has been -obvious, it will be because I have here attempted to focus attention on -some of the corollaries of a single fundamental truth--so obvious that -it often escapes notice, but so fundamental that its results cannot but -fail to obtrude themselves upon us. I mean the unity of phenomena--not -merely the unity of life, put on a firm footing for all time by Darwin, -though that is for my purpose the most important, but the unity of -living and non-living, demanding a monistic conception of the universe. -For the present, the stellar host (possibly, as recent astronomy -seems to assert, assembled not in one system but in a multiplicity of -universes, floating through space like a shoal of jelly-fishes in a -Mediterranean bay)--the stars seem alien from our life, alien or at -best neutral. All that links us to them is that we are built of the -same stuff, the same elements. - -But the last half-century has at least enlarged our view so that we -can perceive that we, as living things, are not alien to the rest of -life--that we march in the same direction, and that our hostility to -and struggles with other organisms are in part but the continuation -of the old struggle, in part the expression of the fact that we have -acquired new methods for dealing with the problems of existence. - -The origin of life itself, and its movement in time--both these are -found to face in the same direction as ourselves. St. Paul wrote that -all things work together for good. That is an exaggeration: but they -work together so that the average level of the good is raised, the -potentialities of life are bettered. In every time and every country, -men have obscurely felt that, although so much of the world, taken -singly, was evil, yet the clash of thing with thing, process with -process, the working of the whole, somehow led to good. - -This feeling is what I believe is clarified and put on a firm -intellectual footing by biology. The problems of evil, of pain, of -strife, of death, of insufficiency and imperfection--all these and -a host of others remain to perplex and burden us. But the fact of -progress emerging from pain and battle and imperfection--this is an -intellectual prop which can support the distressed and questioning -mind, and be incorporated into the common theology of the future. - -Dean Inge, in his Romanes Lectures,[17] quotes Disraeli’s caustic -words, “The European talks of progress because by the aid of a few -scientific discoveries he has established a society which has mistaken -comfort for civilization,” and quotes them with approval. He bitterly -criticizes what we may sum up as Millenarianism (although this after -all is but a crude and popular aspiration after what the Christian -would call the Kingdom of God on earth). And, after exalting Hope as a -virtue, closes with the somewhat satirical statement, “It is safe to -predict that we shall go on hoping.” - -He has been so concerned to attack the dogma of inherent and -inevitable progress in human affairs that he has denied the fact -of progress--whether inevitable we know not, but indubitable and -actual--in biological evolution: and in so doing he has cut off -himself and his adherents from one of the ways in which that greatest -need of man which we spoke of at the outset can be satisfied, from by -far the greatest manifestation in external things of “something, not -ourselves, that makes for righteousness.” - -One word more, and I have done. There remains in some ways the hardest -problem of all. The greatest experiences of human life, those in which -the mind appears to touch the Absolute and the Infinite--what of -their relation to this notion of progress? They are realized in many -forms--in love, in intellectual discovery, in art, in religion; but the -salient fact about all is that they are felt as of intensest value, -and that they seem to leave no more to be desired. Doubtless when we -say that at such moment we touch the Infinite or the Absolute we mean -only that we touch what is infinite and absolute in comparison with our -ordinary selves. None the less, the sense of finality and utter reality -attendant on them is difficult to bring into line with our idea of -progress. - - - “I saw Eternity the other night - Like a great ring of pure and endless light, - All calm, as it was bright.” - - -The Dean too has felt this so strongly that he has made it the keystone -of his argument. As he says, “Spiritual progress must be within the -sphere of a reality which is not itself progressing, or for which in -Milton’s grand words ‘progresses the dateless and irrevoluble circle -of its own perfection, joining inseparable hands with joy and bliss in -over-measure for ever.’” - -I would only suggest that for many to attain to such experiences, -which in truth seem to constitute the highest satisfaction at present -conceivable for men on earth, it is necessary to organize the community -and to plan out life in such a way that human beings, released from the -unnecessary burdens of hunger, poverty, and strife, are not only free -but helped and urged to attain to such Delectable Mountains. Spiritual -progress is our one ultimate aim; it may be towards the dateless and -irrevoluble; but it is inevitably dependent upon progress intellectual, -moral, and physical--progress in this changing, revolving world of -dated events. - - -BIBLIOGRAPHY - -(It was felt that the citation of a few works bearing upon the -subject-matter of the essays might help those desirous of pursuing the -subject further; but to more than this the lists make no claim.) - - Babcock and Clausen, ’18. “Genetics in Relation to Agriculture.” - New York, 1918. - - Bateson, ’22. “Science.” (N.S.) 1922. - - Bergson, H., ’11. “Creative Evolution.” London, 1911. - - Bury, J. B., ’20. “The Idea of Progress.” London, 1920. - - Carr-Saunders, A. M., ’22. “The Population Problem.” Oxford, 1922. - - Castle, _et al_, ’12. “Genetics and Eugenics.” Chicago, 1912. - - Conklin, E. G. “Heredity and Environment in the Development of - Man.” London, 1922. - - Darwin, C. “The Origin of Species.” - - ---- ---- “The Descent of Man.” - - Dendy, ’14. “Outlines of Evolutionary Biology.” London, 1914. - - Hobhouse, L. T., ’19. “Development and Purpose.” London, 1919. - - Huxley, J. S., ’12. “The Individual in the Animal Kingdom.” - Cambridge, 1912. - - ---- T. H. “Evolution and Ethics.” Collected Essays, vol. ix. - London, 1906. - - Inge, W. R., ’20. “The Idea of Progress.” Romanes Lectures. - Oxford, 1920. - - James, W., ’02. “Varieties of Religious Experience.” London, 1902. - - Köhler, W., ’21. “Intelligenzprüfungen an Menschenaffen.” Berlin, - 1921. - - Lloyd Morgan, C, ’20. “Animal Behaviour.” London, 1920. - - Loeb, J., ’18. “Forced Movements, Tropisms, and Animal Conduct.” - Philadelphia, 1918. - - Lull, ’17. “Organic Evolution.” New York, 1917. - - M’Dougall, W., ’11. “Body and Mind.” London, 1911. - - Osborn, H. F., ’10. “The Age of Mammals.” New York, 1910. - - Shipley and MacBride, ’20. “Zoology.” Cambridge, 1920. - - Washburn, M. F., ’13. “The Animal Mind.” New York, 1913. - - Weismann, A., ’04. “The Evolution Theory.” 2 vols. London, 1904. - - Whetham, W. C. D., ’12. “Heredity and Society.” London, 1912. - - Woodward, A. S., ’98. “Outlines of Vertebrate Paleontology.” - Cambridge, 1898. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[1] Wells, ’17. - -[2] Bury, ’20. - -[3] This holds good, naturally, for any given spot on the earth’s -crust: once the contained fossils have been carefully examined from a -number of series of strata, they enable us to correlate the ages of the -members of the different series. - -[4] Bateson, ’22. - -[5] There is a certain school of biologists who object to describing -Protozoa as cells. This to others appears pedantic. But, whether or no -they are right in the matter of terminology, the fact which I am here -emphasizing remains, viz., that Protozoa had to be aggregated before -the Metazoa, or many-celled animals, could arise. - -[6] See Lloyd Morgan, ’20; Washburn, ’13; Köhler, ’21. - -[7] Huxley, ’12. - -[8] See Babcock and Clausen, ’19. - -[9] See Conklin, ’22. - -[10] See Carr-Saunders, ’22. - -[11] See Huxley, ’12. - -[12] See Woodward, ’98; Osborn, ’10. - -[13] See Carr-Saunders, ’22. - -[14] See Köhler, ’21. - -[15] See Whetham, ’21; Castle, ’12. - -[16] See the second essay of this volume for fuller discussion of this -point. - -[17] Inge, ’20. - - - - -II - -BIOLOGY AND SOCIOLOGY - - - PROGRESS - - The Crab to Cancer junior gave advice: - “Know what you want, my son, and then proceed - Directly sideways. God has thus decreed-- - Progress is lateral; let that suffice.” - - Darwinian Tapeworms on the other hand - Agree that Progress is a loss of brain, - And all that makes it hard for worms to attain - The true Nirvana--peptic, pure, and grand. - - Man too enjoys to omphaloscopize. - Himself as Navel of the Universe - Oft rivets him--until he asks his Nurse, - Old Nature, for the truth; and she replies: - “Look back, and find support; you march with Life’s main stream. - Look on--be proud; her future lies within your dream.” - - LONDON, _Feb. 1923_. - - - - -BIOLOGY AND SOCIOLOGY - - “Come out into the light of things; - Let Nature be your teacher.” - --W. WORDSWORTH. - - - “In matters that really interest him, man cannot support the - suspense of judgment which science so often has to enjoin. He is - too anxious to feel certain to have time to know. So that we see - of the sciences, mathematics appearing first, then astronomy, - then physics, then chemistry, then biology, then psychology, - then sociology--but always the new field was grudged to the new - method, and we still have the denial to sociology of the name of - science.”--W. TROTTER, _Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War_. - - -There are many facile comparisons to be drawn between the facts of -biology and of sociology. The most obvious is that between a whole -civilized community and one of the higher animals. Shakespeare -employed an age-old fable in Menenius Agrippa’s Tale of the Belly -and the Members in _Coriolanus_. With Darwin, and the establishment -of evolutionary biology on a sound footing, matters took a new turn. -Man was now seen to be connected with the rest of life not merely by -analogies of his own mind’s weaving, but by the living bonds of genetic -descent; and it was at once perceived that a more rigid force than had -hitherto been suspected might inhere in the comparisons between State -and Organism. For, as Spencer argued, was not the State in a true sense -an organism--a single biological unit composed of individual human -beings just as a metazoan animal was a single biological unit composed, -in the first instance, of individual cells? Further, the investigation -of the evolutionary process seemed to reveal certain general laws of -its march: beings of the same original constitution, exposed to the -environmental forces of the same planet, had reacted in similar ways, -developing along parallel lines, and arriving at similar types of -organization as end-result. Thus it might reasonably be supposed that -we should find the same general organization and mode of development in -one type of organism as in another, in human society as in a vertebrate. - -On these bases, Spencer and his followers drew elaborate comparisons -of the two, and apparently believed that they were reaching the -same degree of accuracy as that found in comparative anatomy when -they compared the circulatory system of a mammal with the transport -facilities of a State, or drew parallels between the brain and the -cabinet. - -It was speedily seen, however, that such generalizations were so broad -and vague as not to be of much service: that the resemblances were in -fact often no more than symbolical or metaphorical, instead of being -based upon detailed similarity of constitution or of evolutionary -development. With this, evolutionary theorizing on sociological -matters fell somewhat into disrepute. The earlier jubilant certainty -gave place to later doubt; and the half-century whose beginnings had -roused Haeckel and Herbert Spencer to their imaginative flights closed -suitably enough with that remarkable document, T. H. Huxley’s Romanes -Lecture, in which the greatest protagonist of Darwinism confesses -to seeing between man and the rest of the cosmic process, in spite -of man’s genesis from that same cosmic process, an insuperable and -essential opposition, a difference of aim or direction which had turned -the original bridge into a barrier.[18] - -As a result, not only did the particular comparison between society -and an organism fall into disrepute, but also all attempts to draw -far-reaching conclusions from biology to human affairs. - -But the original contention still remains, and is logically -unassailable. Man is an organism descended from lower organisms; his -communities are composed of units bound together for mutual good in -a division of labour in the same way as are the cells of a metazoan: -he can no more escape the effects of his terrestrial environment than -can other organisms. There _is_ therefore reason to suppose that the -processes of evolution in man and man’s societies on the one hand, and -in lower organisms on the other, must have something important and -indeed fundamental in common, something which if we could but unravel -would help us in the study of both. - -The correlation of biology with sociology is important not only in -itself, but also as part of a more general correlation of all the -sciences. The correlation of the sciences is of particular importance -to-day for a double set of reasons. The rise of evolutionary biology -and of modern psychology have not only changed our outlook on specially -human problems, but have altered the whole balance, if I may so put -it, of science. There was a time when the basic studies of physics -and chemistry seemed not only basic but somehow more essentially -scientific than the sciences dealing with life. Distinctions were -drawn between the experimental and the observational sciences--often -half-consciously implying a distinction between accurate, scientific, -self-respecting sciences and blundering, hit-or-miss, tolerated bodies -of knowledge. Biological phenomena are now, however, seen to be every -whit as susceptible of accurate and experimental analysis; and indeed -to present so many problems to the physicist and chemist that in fifty -years or so, I venture to prophesy, the wise virgins in those basic -sciences will be those who have laid in a store of biological oil. - -But the main point is this--the study of evolution, of animal behaviour -and of human psychology makes it clear that in the higher forms of -animals at least we are dealing with a category not touched on at all -by the physicist and chemist--the category of mind and mental process. -Sir Charles Sherrington, with admirable lucidity, drew for us, in his -recent address to the British Association, the problem of the relation -between mind and matter as it presents itself to the biologist. - -The great change that has come over science in the last half century, -or so it seems to me, is the recognition that mind is not to be -explained away as a mere epiphenomenon, but is to be studied as a -phenomenon. From this point of view, biology will always be the -connecting link between physico-chemical science on the one hand, and -psychology on the other. There is every reason to suppose and no reason -to doubt that life, which we know to be composed of the same material -elements and to work by the same energy as non-living matter, actually -arose from it during the evolution of this planet. There is, in the -behaviour of the lower organisms, nothing which by itself would make us -postulate mind: but in the higher insects, molluscs, and vertebrates, -the last in particular, mental process is not only clearly present, but -clearly of great biological importance; and finally the mind of man, -according to innumerable converging lines of evidence, has evolved from -the mind of some non-human mammal. - -The principle of continuity makes us postulate that this new category -of phenomena has not sprung up during the course of evolution -absolutely _de novo_, but that it is in some sense universally present -in all phenomena. It is merely that we have not yet found a method -for the direct detection of mental processes as we have, say, for -electrical processes; but something of the same general nature, the -same category as mind must, if we wish to preserve our scientific -sanity, our belief in the orderliness of the world, be present in lower -organisms and in the lifeless matter from which they originally sprang. - -In the present state of our knowledge, the study of physics and -chemistry can be pursued without any reference to mental processes. But -the study of biology cannot: and that is one reason why the centre of -gravity of science as a whole is shifting--it is shifting for exactly -the same reason that the centre of gravity of a house shifts during its -construction--because the foundations have to be built first. - -Our second reason is as follows. Biology is once more the link between -root and flower, between physics and chemistry and human affairs, in -regard to evolution. I say evolution: it would be better to broaden the -idea by saying the directional processes to be seen in the universe. So -far as a main direction is to be observed in physics and chemistry, it -is, as all authorities are agreed, towards the degradation of energy -and a final state in which not only life but all activity whatsoever -will be reduced to nothing, all the waters of energy run down into -a single dead level of moveless ocean. Biology, on the other hand, -presents us with the spectacle of an evolution in which the main -direction is the raising of the maximum level of certain qualities -of living beings, such as efficiency of organs, co-ordination, size, -accuracy and range of senses, capacity for knowledge, memory and -educability, emotional intensity,--qualities which in one way or -another lead to a more efficient control by the organism over the -external world, and to its greater independence. - -A direction towards more mind is visible; and this development of -greater mental powers has been in all the later stages the chief -instrument of acquiring control and independence. More and more -of matter is embodied in living organisms, more and more becomes -subservient to life. - -Thus, while in physics and chemistry we see a tendency towards the -extinction of life and activity, in biology we see a tendency towards -more life and more activity; and this latter tendency is accompanied -and largely made possible by the evolution of greater intensity of -mental process--of something, that is to say, of which we cannot as yet -take account in physics and chemistry. - -The biologist may well ask himself the question--“Is it not possible -that this evolving mind, of whose achievements on its new level in -man we are only seeing the beginning, may continue to find more and -more ways of subordinating the inorganic to itself, and that it may -eventually retard or even prevent the attainment of this complete -degradation of energy prophesied by physico-chemical science? Is it -not possible that this great generalization only applies to phenomena -in their purely material aspect, and that when we learn to detect and -measure the mental aspects of phenomena we may find reason to modify -the universal applicability of this law of degradation?” We do not know -the answer to that question: but it is clearly a legitimate and useful -question to ask. In any event, we constatate two chief directions in -the universe; that seen in biology is in many ways opposed to that seen -in physics and chemistry; and both must be taken into account. - -I have spent, I fear, a great deal of time on what will appear to many -as very irrelevant prolegomena. But the complete breakdown of the -older views about nature and man, of the philosophies and theologies -based not on observation but on an authority which is no authority, on -unverifiable speculation, on superstition, and on what we would like to -be so rather than on what happens to be so--the breakdown of all the -commonly accepted basis for man’s view of himself and the universe, has -made it necessary to go back to fundamentals if we are to see where -we stand. Secondly, the progress of the biological and psychological -sciences, as I have already pointed out, has considerably altered the -outlook of those who pin their faith to the newer or scientific view -of nature, the view which attempts constantly to refer speculations -to reality, and to build on foundations which have been tested by -experiment. - -The orthodox evolutionary view was that phenomena received in some -degree an explanation if their origin from simpler phenomena could be -demonstrated. As a matter of fact, reflection makes it clear that such -an explanation is never complete. It is a very incomplete explanation -of the properties of water to discover that it is composed of oxygen -and hydrogen; or of those of humanity to discover that it is derived -from lower forms of life. A precisely similar mistake is made by most -psycho-analysts, who consider that an “explanation” of adult psychology -is given by tracing in it effects of the events of childhood. In all -such cases it is true that analysis is helped, but we are by no means -exempted from further study of the later (and more complex) phenomena -in and for themselves. Just as adult psychology is qualitatively -different in various respects from childish psychology, so is man -qualitatively different from lower organisms. Very few attempts have -been made to carry over conceptions derived from sociology into -biology.[19] But the converse, as we have seen, has often been true, -and numerous writers--largely because purely biological are simpler -than human phenomena--have been obsessed with the idea that the study -of biology as such will teach us principles which can be applied -directly and wholesale to human problems. - -What we have just been saying shows us the correct path. Through -psychology and biology, sociology can become attached to the general -body of science; and in so doing it can both receive and give. Since -man is but a single species of organism, and, biologically speaking, -a very young one; since moreover he presents a peculiar type of -organization, it is clear that the broad principles underlying -physiology and evolution can best be studied on other organisms and -later applied to man. On the other hand, man is the highest existing -organism; thus a study of the causes to which he owes his pre-eminence -will be important as adding to and crowning the principles derived -from non-human biology. Furthermore, not only are man’s mental powers -on a different level from those of other animals, but psychology can -at present make by far its greatest contributions by a study of human -mind, so that the psychological side of biology will for the present -derive its chief information from man. - -Our first affair, therefore, is to see in what important respects -man is qualitatively unlike the rest of the organic world; then to -investigate what general rules or principles apply equally to him and -to the others; and finally to see what corrections, so to speak, must -be made before these principles can be applied to the one or to the -other. - -The qualitative difference between man and other organisms is a -cardinal fact with orthodox biology has tended to slur over or to -neglect, whereas philosophy has too often tried to magnify it unduly -so as to make man frankly incommensurable with his lower relatives, a -creature not only unique but disparate. - -Man is obviously and undoubtedly an organism of the same general nature -as other organisms. He possesses the same general system of organs, -working in the same way as a dog, a horse, a bird, a crocodile, or -a frog; he passes through the same type of developmental cycle; he -is built on the same detailed plan as other mammals; and numerous -indications betray his descent from a particular branch of the -mammalian stock. - -But in his mode of life and type of social organization he is unique. -All detailed comparisons between the communities of man and those of -bees and ants are as unprofitable in the working-out as they are easy -in the making. It is futile to direct the sluggard or any other human -being to the ant, since the whole physical and psychical construction -of ants is different from that of man, the whole organization of their -communities from that of his. - -His mode of life is unique because his psycho-neural mechanism is built -on a new plan, new modes of connection between parts of the brain being -associated with new possibilities of mind. Let us briefly run over the -biologically most important points in which he differs from the lower -organisms. - -In the first place, he is capable of speech, and possesses a true -language--not a mere repertory of sounds or signs associated with -different states of mind, as in some higher organisms, but a language -comprising special symbols for particular external objects, and -thus making it possible to have a much more detailed knowledge and -classification of the outer world. In the second place, he can frame -abstract ideas or concepts, and is thus enabled to extract the general -kernel from the husk of innumerable separate and different particulars. -As a result of these two faculties, he possesses what we may call a -new, accessory form of inheritance. True biological inheritance takes -place by means of the reproductive cells. In some birds and mammals, -the behaviour of the young is modified by what they learn from their -parents, so that they profit by the experience of their elders; -however, this profiting by experience is not cumulative, but must be -repeated afresh in each generation. In man, on the other hand, speech -and writing make it possible to construct a continuous tradition, by -means of which experience may be actually accumulated from generation -to generation. There are thus two forms of inheritance in man, two -hereditary streams--biological inheritance, by means of germ-cells or -detached portions of the organism, in which favourable mutations may -be accumulated by selection, and “experience-inheritance,” by means -of tradition, in which useful experience may be accumulated by the -activity of mind. By means of tradition-inheritance, man is virtually -enabled to “inherit acquired characters”; thus the environment in -which the latter stages of his development are passed through, and -consequently his adult self, the end-product of that development, can -be altered far more rapidly than in any other organism. Finally, it -is possible, as is being increasingly realized, thus to accumulate -experience relating to the alteration of biological inheritance, and so -eventually to substitute conscious purpose for blind natural selection -in man’s future evolution. - -Next point: by means of speech, tradition, and invention, man has -been enabled to extend his biological environment--in other words, -that part of the cosmos with which he stands in relation--till it has -reached an enormously greater size than that of any other organism. -He is learning ever more facts about the celestial bodies, studying -stars that are at an inconceivable distance from him. He is able to -travel at will to all parts of the globe. He can penetrate by means of -tradition to remote periods of the past: as Mr. Wells has forcibly put -it, a modern Englishman can know more of the world in the Classical -Epoch than could the most learned Greek or Roman. And even when he can -no more get into contact with ideas, he can still unravel facts: flint -implements help him to the history of man, fossils to that of life, -rocks to that of the globe, stars to that of the solar system. In time, -as well as in space, his environment enlarges to a size that is for -practical purposes infinite, whereas no other organism can penetrate -beyond its own memories, or, at most, do more than profit by those -of the generation immediately before it. Professor Keyser,[20] in a -suggestive article, has characterized this unique attribute of man by -calling him “the time-binder.” - -Speech and reasoning, with all their consequences, have only been -rendered possible through another important qualitative change in the -human brain, which in its turn has led to other new potentialities of -life being realized in man and in man alone--its flexibility. - -In some of the lowest forms of life, such as Paramecium, there are but -one or two possible modes of reaction--reactions which it attempts in -response to any one of the myriad changes that may occur in the outer -world. As we ascend the scale, we find two chief types of alterations: -in the first place an increase in the number of hereditarily-given -modes of reaction, and in the second an increased power of “learning,” -of altering behaviour in adjustment to experience. In the insects, the -first is chiefly in evidence. Although many insects undoubtedly can -profit by experience to a limited degree, yet most of their behaviour -is instinctive, in the sense that it unrolls itself automatically and -efficiently in the absence of previous experience or of any possible -instruction. In the vertebrates, on the other hand, we see as we pass -from the lower to the higher groups a definite, steady increase in the -power of learning by experience, from the fish that takes weeks to -associate a given colour with a given event such as feeding-time, to -the dog or monkey capable of learning elaborate tricks after a couple -of trials. But even in the most “intelligent” of birds or mammals, the -power of image-formation is very probably absent,[21] and the power -of concept-formation, of generalizing, certainly so. This fact (quite -apart from the absence of tradition, although this too operates in the -same direction) means that the associations of animals can only be -arbitrary and individual: a rook in one country (to choose a somewhat -far-fetched example) may happen to associate danger with fire-arms, one -in another with bows and arrows. Life, for the animals, is a cinema, -different for each individual, in which one event may be associated -with another in the most diverse and haphazard ways. With the advent -of the human type of brain, however, experience can be sorted out and -properly docketed; the mere cinematographic record is converted into a -drama full of significance, the diary into a card-index. By this means, -and by tradition, it is possible for man to obtain a much more accurate -and more complete grasp of the relationships of the objects that -compose the outer world than is possible for any other animal. Through -knowledge, as ever, comes power: and as a result, man has been enabled -to invent tools and machinery, and so to enlarge enormously his control -over his environment. Just as his “range,” in the zoogeographical -sense, is extended to an unprecedented degree both in space and time, -so tools represent, biologically speaking, an extension of himself -as an operator. While man is using a tool, he and the tool together -constitute but a single unit in the struggle for existence. As various -writers have put it, tools and machines are temporary organs of man, -which have the additional merit of being replaceable if lost or damaged. - -But this is not all: the great power of association possessed by man, -together with his faculty of generalization and of speech, makes it -possible for him to _learn_ his rôle in the community, instead of being -born with it as are the bee and the ant. Great educability instead of -differentiated instinct, infinite possibility, at the expense of the -pains of learning, instead of an effortless but limited stock of inborn -modes of behaviour--in this again man represents a qualitatively new -organic type. - -By this means he can escape what has always been a necessity with lower -forms: by means of education and machinery he can play a specialized -part in the community life, and so build up a community with a high -degree of division of labour, without being born specialized. He could -not thus learn his rôle if he were not educable, nor if he could not -manufacture tools. An ant or a duck or a dog possesses admirable tools -for its particular job: but they are living parts of the organism’s -own body. A worker ant cannot lay down its serviceable carpentering -mandibles and become a soldier by picking up a large and warlike -pair:--once a worker, always a worker; once a soldier, always a -soldier--that is the rule for ants, but not for men. - -The efficiency and biological success of communities depends on the -degree and accuracy of the division of labour and co-ordination between -the units of which they are built up. This is true of cell-communities -and the second-grade individuals or metazoa or multicellular animals -and plants to which they give rise,[22] and also of the communities -of metazoa and the third-grade individuals to which they give rise, -whether the members of such communities of higher grade are physically -bound together, as in a Hydroid or a Portuguese Man-o’-War, or -united only by mental bonds, as are the communities of ants and bees -and termites. As we have seen, the individuals are differentiated -structurally for the different functions which they have to perform. - -This is not so in human species: a man is not born cross-legged to -be a tailor, or broad-thumbed to be a miller, or big-armed to be a -blacksmith. Even in the hereditary castes of India, the trade or -profession is determined by tradition, and not by inborn structural -adaptations. - -Still another consequence flows from this educability, this flexible -and elastic mental organization. A man can pass from one occupation -to another. He can be specialized for several, or combine a high -degree of professional skill in one with the generalized knowledge of -an amateur in another. It is this obvious but fundamental fact which -is at the bottom of many of the failures to apply biological ideas to -sociology. - -Another human distinction is the increase of the part played by -environment in man as opposed to animals (in determining his -biologically effective nature). Environment plays not merely a large -part, but a preponderating one, in his development after the first -year or so of his life. Tradition provides a special environment, -made by man for man’s own development; and men brought up in markedly -different traditions arrive at different end-results just as surely and -obviously as do men of markedly different hereditary tendencies arrive -at different end-results even though exposed to similar traditions. -Traditions are infinitely complex things: there are world traditions, -national traditions broad and narrow, class traditions and traditions -of profession and trade, traditions of predilection, of art, of -religion: and men may be exposed in their development to the combined -influence of a number of these. But the net result of the diversity of -tradition is an extraordinary diversity of end-result. “_Nihil humanum -alienum a me puto_”--Terence could only say this with truth in the -sense that there are certain fundamental emotions and instincts found -in all men, and also certain aspects of environment shared by all -humanity--the sun and moon, earth, water, and fire, space and time, -parents and society, and so on and so forth. - -I make no apologies for the length of this preliminary analysis, -since it is precisely by the neglect of preliminary analysis that -most attempts to correlate biology and sociology have failed. The -salient fact emerges that with man there has been a radical change in -evolutionary method. - -As space is limited, I am here only proposing to consider three of the -chief contributions which biology can make to sociology--on the idea of -progress, on the relation between individual and community, and on the -applicability of the doctrine of the struggle for existence to man. - -As regards the idea of progress, biology can make a clear and -unequivocal contribution: whereas man is biologically so young, his -evolution is yet so chaotic and divergently directed, that it is very -hard to arrive at definite conclusions from the study of his history -alone. It has been a source of constant surprise to me that more use -has not been made of biological data in the controversy over this -question. In the little book recently edited by Mr. Marvin on various -aspects of the concept of Progress, there was no article dealing with -biological progress; and even in Professor Bury’s notable book, _The -Idea of Progress_, biology was as little and as unsatisfactorily drawn -upon as in Dean Inge’s writings on the subject. - -We have already seen that a certain direction obtains in organic -evolution. Into the details of this process I have not here the time -to go; we must be content with the brief enumeration which has already -been given of the qualities of organisms whose maximum level, and to a -lesser degree whose average, have increased during evolution. - -So far so good. But a process may be going in a definite direction and -yet not be satisfactory. - -This road leads to London; this other to Puddlington Parva. We all know -people who are obviously headed for success, while it is on record that -Mr. Mantalini’s direction was towards “the demnition bow-wows.” - -But we know that we ourselves consciously find _value_ in things, in -objects and aims, in directions and processes. In this we are unique -among organisms, and as a matter of fact a large part of our life is -determined by the relative values we set on objects. On the whole, -however, there is a reasonable amount of agreement among different -individuals, at any rate in one country at one epoch, as to what they -call good and what they call bad. There are very few western Europeans -who find dirt or untruthfulness good, knowledge or bravery bad. - -When we look into the trend of biological evolution, we find as a -matter of fact that it has operated to produce on the whole what we -find good, to bring into being more and more things on which we can set -positive value. This is not to say that progress is an inevitable “law -of nature,” but that it has actually occurred, and that its occurrence -provides an external sanction for many of our subjective human hopes -and ideals. - -True that we are ourselves a product of the evolutionary process and -might therefore be thought biased. None the less, it is clear that if a -degenerate animal like a tapeworm, or one inevitably specialized like -a hermit-crab, could possess and enunciate values, they would be of a -very different nature from our own. But we should further find that -the direction of the evolutionary process which led to the former was -directly opposed to the main trend, that of the latter more or less -at right angles to it. The general coincidence of the main observable -trend and of our own concepts of value warrants us in calling the one -progressive, and in feeling that the other is no mere isolated flicker -in an alien or hostile world, but finds a sanction and a resting-place -in being part of something vastly bigger than itself. The remarkable -and important fact for man is to find, in spite of all the apparently -fundamental differences between his organization and his evolutionary -methods and those of lower organisms, in spite of the widespread -degeneration and “blind-alleyism” to be seen in evolution, that the -direction in which he desires to go coincides with the resultant, the -main direction of organic evolution. There are no ideals, there is no -purpose, in fish or ant or tree: but man’s ideals and purposes are the -outcome of the blind interplay of forces in which fish and ant and -tree play their unwitting rôles. True again that further analysis shows -that the methods of evolutionary progress are often crude, wasteful, -and slow: that some of our values are unreal or artificial: but this -does not destroy the main fact, and only means that each side can here -learn something from the other. - -The main fact abides--that progress is an evolutionary reality, and -that an analysis of the modes of biological progress may often help us -in our quest for human progress. - -The next great problem on which biology has something to say to -sociology is that eternal one of the relation between individual -and community. As it is sometimes put, Does the individual exist -for the State, or the State for the individual? In all non-human -biological aggregates--cell-colonies, second-grade aggregates or -metazoan organisms, third-grade aggregates like Siphonophora and -insect communities--the very existence of the aggregate as a unit, its -biological efficiency and success, depend upon a permanent division of -labour between its members, upon their thoroughgoing specialization. -This always and inevitably involves a sacrifice of certain of their -potentialities to greater efficiency in one of a few actual functions, -and in evolution a progressive subordination of the smaller unit to the -aggregate. - -At first sight, biological principles seem to contradict themselves -on this subject. On the one hand, the human individual is, or, we had -better say, has the potentiality of being the highest type of organism -in existence--far higher, biologically speaking, not only than any -human community now in existence, but than any which we could possibly -imagine as coming into existence in the future. When we remember the -general agreement of biological progress with our human values, it is -clear that to degrade the individual for the benefit of the community -is wrong--a biological crime. - -On the other hand, human progress depends and will always depend to an -extent scarcely to be overrated upon the proper organization of the -community. So long as present competition continues, the very survival -of a nation may easily depend upon the efficiency of its organization -as a community. Biological as well as human experience makes it -perfectly plain that such success, in a unit which is itself an -aggregate of smaller units, depends upon the degree of specialization -of these constituent units and the division of labour and co-operation -between them. - -Biology here then lays down that human individuals should become -more and more specialized if progress is to continue; but since -specialization implies the sacrifice of many potentialities for the -good of the whole, this apparently contradicts what we have just -inculcated above. - -This is where our human flexibility comes in. Man should neither live -whole-heartedly for himself, nor throw his individuality, ant-like, -beneath the wheels of the community Juggernaut. He can escape from the -dilemma by passing from one state to the other. For part of his time, -he can apply his energies as a specialized unit--for the rest, he can -be a complete individual, realizing the various potentialities of his -many-sided nature, with the community contributing to his development, -not he to the community’s. And not only can he, but he should act thus. - -Be it noted, to avoid misapprehension, that I have here been using the -community to denote the single aggregate unit which from the beginning -has played such an important part biologically in human evolution, not -merely as denoting the sum of individuals considered separately. - -Thus biology gives a definite answer to this question too. Pure -individualism is condemned, and so is what we may call ant-and-bee -socialism. Some form of the “dual day,” to use a current phrase, or at -least of the “dual life,” is the method which seems to be in accord -with the enduring principles of biology, although the precise details -are not and cannot be the biologist’s concern, and particular lives, -such as that of the creative artist, who moves on a different plane of -reality, escape his analysis. - -I have reserved to the close that biological principle which has been -most often and most seriously misapplied in sociology and politics--the -struggle for existence. Never was the proverb about the Devil’s quoting -Scripture better exemplified than in this matter. This fundamental -idea of Darwin’s has been used as justification for three totally -different and indeed incompatible political doctrines. In England, it -has served chiefly to bolster up _laissez-faire_ individualism and -free competition. In Germany in the years immediately succeeding the -publication of the _Origin of Species_, it was seized upon by the -Socialists as implying equal opportunity for all as against feudalism -or hereditary aristocracy. Later in the same country (and to a certain -extent elsewhere) it was abundantly employed as a theoretical support -for militarism. - -As a matter of fact, the use of it as sole principle governing the -interrelation of biological units is wholly unjustified. As has been -shown by a number of writers, among whom may especially be mentioned -Darwin himself, Ritchie in his _Darwinism and Politics_, and Kropotkin -in his _Mutual Aid_, the struggle for existence is only _one_ of two -possibilities in this relationship: the other is that of co-operation, -of mutual aid, which is especially well marked in the building up of -higher-grade units from a multiplicity of smaller lower-grade ones. Two -of the most important steps in the whole evolutionary process have been -based on the co-operation of units--the origin of multicellular from -unicellular organisms, and the development of true man, with his social -life, from his pre-human ancestor. It is also prominent in the lives -of many species of the highest groups--insects, mammals, and birds: -witness the ants and bees, the rook, the wild dog, the elephant, the -baboon. In fact, once the bodily specialization of units has reached -a certain pitch, progress, as we have seen, is only possible through -mental development, and this in the great majority of cases brings -about aggregation into some sort of community, held together by mental -bonds. - -Besides aggregation of similar units, there has frequently been -co-operation between units of unlike character and origin--witness -symbiosis, as in lichens; the relation between many insects and -flowers; the formation of flocks consisting of two or more species, as -with jackdaws and rooks, and many other cases. - -Competition and co-operation both occur throughout the whole of -evolution: but co-operation comes to play an ever more considerable -part in higher forms. In lower organisms enormous overproduction is -of no great consequence; their organization is simple, and, given -favourable conditions, they can turn inorganic matter into their own -specific substance at a great rate. But higher forms are more complex, -more delicately balanced, and longer lived. Accordingly, waste of life -is of greater consequence to them, and methods by which a struggle on -the grand scale can be minimized tend to be more and more adopted. We -find regularly, for instance, a reduction of the number of offspring in -higher groups together with greater parental care. - -Thus co-operation, for still fresh reasons, is biologically important -for the higher groups. The problem is becoming increasingly pressing -for the human race, since the time is in sight when the whole habitable -area of the globe will be colonized, up to a certain level of density -and efficiency, by members of the more advanced races. Biologically -speaking, it is perfectly clear that some co-operative system, -involving federation in one form or another, is the proper system to -adopt; and that the “world-state”--not necessarily organized after -the plan of our present highly specialized nationalist-industrialist -states, which appear happily to represent only a temporary phase -of evolution, but none the less an organic reality, a co-operative -unit--that the “world-state” is not merely a figment of unpractical -dreamers, but an obviously desirable aim for humanity. Kant, a century -and a half ago even, had seen clearly enough that some universal -society was a necessity for the unfolding of human possibility; and had -gone further and pointed out that there were indications of a movement -of civilization in that direction. In our time, this movement has been -retarded by the extraordinary and mushroom growth of Nationalism, in -which to the average man his “Country” (really _Nation_) has become -his most real God. In the last hundred years, Nationalism has usurped -the place of Religion as the most important super-individual interest -of individuals--has indeed in some sense become a religion. It is -leading the world into an impasse, as do all incomplete and partial -conceptions; but, in the Hague Court and the League of Nations, has -already generated the seeds of what will in time devour it.[23] - -To sum up, we may say that the crude application to human affairs of -the doctrine of the struggle for existence, torn from its biological -context, isolated and over-emphasized, is wholly unwarranted. On the -other hand, a struggle does continue, both of the direct and indirect -type defined by Darwin: and there is no prospect of it ceasing to play -an important part in human biology. Co-operation is not, any more than -competition, to be taken as the sole desirable principle. Panaceas of -this sort do not exist, except to make bubble reputations and quack -fortunes. Even within such a highly organized co-operative unit as -the mammalian body a struggle continues--the different tissues are -in competition with each other for food, and if the available supply -diminishes below the necessary level, some tissues will be drawn upon -by other more successful competitors, and the struggle will lead to an -end-result in which the proportion of the various kinds of cells comes -to be very different from what they were in the normal well-nourished -body.[24] That is a purely biological example. In man, since the -unification of the community is of a low order, it is inevitable that -individuals and sections will continue in some form of competition with -each other: not only this, however, but the additional fact that man’s -mental organization reacts strongly to the stimulus of competition make -it probable that a “struggle” of some sort will not only be inevitable -but up to a point beneficial in any form of society. What is more, once -co-operation exists, competition between the co-operative units is -necessary to bring out the full efficiency of their combination. - -All that the biologist can do is to point out that neither the -one-sided application of the principle of struggle nor of that of -co-operation is biologically sound. But, as everywhere else in human -conduct, after the broad principles have been grasped, success lies -always in a delicate, continuous adjustment of conflicting claims, in -what one may call a personal conscious effort. Struggle is universal: -but by itself it can only lead to a certain stage of evolutionary -progress. - -The half-baked moralist may lay down the law about right and wrong -with the most positive assurance; but, by not paying attention to the -necessity for sweet reasonableness, give-and-take, unselfishness, for -thought about the thousand and one details of daily conduct, he may be -making himself and his wife thoroughly unhappy, ruining his family’s -chances, and, as a matter of fact, be thoroughly immoral without once -suspecting it. - -It is in a very similar way that the militarist, for instance, -fortifying himself in the doctrine of the struggle for existence with -what he regards as an impregnable sanction for his theories, is in -reality acting immorally because not attempting to envisage the whole -problem. - -There is one very interesting evolutionary point which well illustrates -the difference between pure biology and pure sociology, and yet -emphasizes the natural connection between the two. Once again it has -a connection with the greater flexibility of human mind. As we have -seen, in the lowest animals behaviour is for the most part unvarying, -hereditarily determined: the organism is capable of a number of -definite reactions, and if these do not suffice to extricate it from -difficulties, it perishes. The first step towards gaining is the -power of learning. “Once bitten, twice shy” is applicable to all -higher vertebrates; and it is not only the burnt child who dreads the -fire (although a study of moths and candles will convince us that -“Lepidopteran” cannot be substituted as subject of the proverb). - -When, as in the higher mammals, the power of learning by experience is -rapid, the individual organism is better able to adjust itself to the -dangers of life, and once more there is less sacrifice of individuals -in the struggle. The same organism persists: but of two possible types -of behaviour, the unmodified innate type is eliminated, the type -modified by experience survives. If we like to put it in a way which -is perhaps not wholly justifiable, there comes into being, besides the -struggle for existence between individuals, a struggle for existence -between different possible modes of reaction of one and the same -organism. - -With the advent of man upon the scene, still new possibilities arise. -First of all, he is capable of ideas, which, biologically speaking, are -to be regarded as potentialities of behaviour. There is no evidence at -present that even the highest animals possess ideas or even images.[25] -Secondly, these ideas are transmissible by speech and writing, and -accordingly tradition has come into being, so that modification of -behaviour by experience can be operative not only within the individual -life, not only from one generation to the next immediately succeeding, -as in many mammals, but for an indefinite period. The experience of -Moses, Archimedes, or Charlemagne, of Jesus, Newton, or James Watt is -modifying our behaviour to-day. - -The result, both for individuals and communities, is that a selection -of ideas instead of a selection of organic units can to an ever greater -extent take place; and thus the actual extinction of living matter -be increasingly avoided. For instance, we find the substitution of -judicial procedure, in which the ideas of two disputants about the -matter in dispute are weighed and a selection made in favour of one, -for various forms of violence and combat in which one or other of the -actual disputants was often eliminated. Or again, in struggles between -communities, even though warfare is still resorted to, yet it does -not operate in the same way as in earlier stages of human evolution. A -salient example of this is afforded by the result of the recent war to -Germany; although an equally good instance can be seen, for example, -in the Boer War. In primitive wars, the defeated tribe was wherever -possible exterminated or enslaved: it ceased to exist as an independent -unit, and the great majority of its male members were killed. This is -impossible under present conditions: and all those who preserve, or -have ever possessed, any political sanity aim, for instance, neither at -the physical nor the economic destruction or subordination of Germany, -but--to use one of those attractive catchwords that sounded so well in -war-time--at her “change of heart”--in other words, the extermination, -not of a nation, but of a national tradition. - -To what extent this substitution of mental for physical will continue -it is hard to say; already, to take another field, the multiplication -of cheap books has led to an ever increasing number of men and women -finding most of their adventure and romance in books instead of in the -life that we are accustomed to call real. But that would lead us away -from our main point--enough to have indicated another great difference -between processes above and below the human level. - -There are numerous important questions concerning our right to apply -biological ideas of heredity directly to human beings which I would -have liked to touch upon. But for one thing I have not the time, and -for another, Mr. Carr-Saunders in his recent book on the Population -Problem has dealt so fully with the relation between biological -inheritance and what may be called tradition-inheritance, that I omit -them with a good conscience. - -In this brief treatment I have had to ask you to take conclusions on -trust, without presenting the evidence on which they are based; this, -however, is inevitable when transferring ideas from one science to -another. I have attempted to show, first, that biology can profit by -incorporating certain conclusions of sociology and so rounding off and -completing certain of its own principles: on the other hand, I have put -before you my belief that there are certain basic biological principles -which must be taken into account by the sociologist--principles which -hold good in sociology because man too is an organism. - -By now, however, we can see more clearly the way in which the various -sciences with which we are concerned, of whose relations we had -something to say at the beginning of this essay, properly interlock. - -They interlock thus. The physico-chemical sciences are basic to -biology. Organisms are made of the same substances as are non-living -compounds; their processes are therefore conformable to certain -physico-chemical laws, such as the indestructibility of matter, the -conservation of energy, and so forth; and in so far as we analyse the -material aspect of life, physico-chemical concepts are _adequate_. -On the other hand, physico-chemical concepts--or at least our -present ones--are not _all-sufficient_. In the first place, the very -complicated arrangement of matter which is found in living substance -has not been yet sufficiently analysed by physics and chemistry: -accordingly we find many processes occurring in biology--such as the -directional changes in evolution of which we have spoken--which could -not have been foretold on our present physico-chemical knowledge, -but must be investigated separately as adding to our store of facts -and principles, in the confident hope that a synthesis will one -day be possible. Secondly, a whole new category of phenomena, the -psychological, is first met with in biology, and to this we cannot as -yet apply physical or chemical ideas at all. - -For a combination of these two reasons, biology deals with certain -concepts which are not implicit in current physico-chemical ideas. -Physics and chemistry are basic for biology, but they are not -exhaustive. - -In a very similar way, biology is basic for sociology, but again not -exhaustive. Certain limits are set to human life through man’s organic -nature. Certain of his activities can be completely analysed in terms -of biology. But other of his activities, especially those concerned -with his new type of mental organization, find no counterpart in -the rest of the biological kingdoms, and must be studied in and for -themselves. - -Bergson would have us believe that evolution is creative. It is better -to say, with Lloyd Morgan, that it is emergent. With new degrees of -complexity, new qualitative differences emerge. Thus the sciences are -a hierarchy, the subject-matter of one constituting the foundation for -the next in the series. All that biology can do for sociology is to -help her to build her foundations solidly and correctly: but we all -know that without good foundations no building is safe. - - -BIBLIOGRAPHY - - Bury, J. B., ’20. “The Idea of Progress.” London, 1920. - - Carr-Saunders, A. M., ’22. “The Population Problem.” Oxford, 1922. - - Hobhouse, L. T., ’01. “Mind in Evolution.” London, 1901. - - Huxley, J. S., ’12. “The Individual in the Animal Kingdom.” - Cambridge, 1912. - - Keyser, ’21. “Science” (N.S.) New York, 1921. - - Kropotkin, Prince, ’08. “Mutual Aid, A Factor in Evolution.” - London, 1908. - - Lloyd Morgan, C., ’23. “Emergent Evolution.” London, 1923. - - Marvin, F. S. “Progress and History” (5th Imp.). Oxford, 1921. - - Radl, E., ’09. “Geschichte der biologischen Theorien,” vol. ii. - Leipzig, 1909. - - Ritchie, ’01. “Darwinism in Politics” (4th Ed.). London, 1901. - - Roberts, Morley, ’20. “Warfare in the Human Body.” London, 1920. - - Roux, W., ’81. “Der Kampf der Teile im Organismics.” 1881. - - Sherrington, ’22. “The Advancement of Science, 1922.” London, 1922. - - Spencer, Herbert. “First Principles,” “Principles of Biology,” - “Principles of Sociology.” - - Thorndike, E. L., ’11. “Animal Intelligence.” New York, 1911. - - Trotter, W., ’19. “Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War” (2nd - Ed.). London, 1919. - - Wells, H. G., ’21. “The Outline of History.” London, 1921. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[18] For a remarkable critical history of biological thought during -this period, see Radl, ’09. - -[19] Morley Roberts is a recent exception. See his interesting book, -_Warfare in the Human Body_. - -[20] _Science_, September 1921. - -[21] See Thorndike, ’11. - -[22] See J. S. Huxley, ’12, for a discussion of the grades of -biological individuality. - -[23] See, e.g., Wells, ’21, pp. 558, 666. - -[24] See Roux, ’81, for a discussion of this important extension of -Darwinism. - -[25] See Thorndike, _op. cit._; Washburn, _The Animal Mind_. New York, -1913. - - - - -III - -ILS N’ONT QUE DE L’ÂME: AN ESSAY ON BIRD-MIND - - - THE BIRDS - - To most of us, a bird’s a feathered song - Which for our pleasure gives a voice to spring. - We make a symbol of its airy wing - Bright with the liberty for which we long. - - Or we discover them with love more strong - As each a separate, individual thing - Which only learns to act, or move, or sing - In ways that wholly to itself belong. - - But some with deeper and more inward sight - See them a part of that one Life which streams - Slow on, towards more mind--a part more light - Then we; unburdened with regrets, or dreams, - Or thought. A winged emotion of the sky, - The birds through an eternal Present fly. - -OXFORD, _April 1923_. - - - - -ILS N’ONT QUE DE L’ÂME: AN ESSAY ON BIRD-MIND - - - “O Nightingale, thou surely art - A creature of a fiery heart.” - --W. WORDSWORTH. - - - “The inferior animals, when the conditions of life are favourable, - are subject to periodical fits of gladness, affecting them - powerfully and standing out in vivid contrast to their ordinary - temper.... Birds are more subject to this universal joyous - instinct than mammals, and ... as they are much freer than - mammals, more buoyant and graceful in action, more loquacious, - and have voices so much finer, their gladness shows itself in a - greater variety of ways, with more regular and beautiful motions, - and with melody.”--W. H. HUDSON. - - - “How do you know but ev’ry Bird that cuts the airy way - Is an immense world of delight, clos’d by your senses five?” - --BLAKE. - - -“_Ils n’ont pas de cerveau--ils n’ont que de l’âme._” A dog was -being described, with all his emotion, his apparent passion to make -himself understood, his failure to reach comprehension; and that was -how the French man of letters summed up the brute creation--“_pas de -cerveau--que de l’âme_.” - -Nor is it a paradox: it is a half-truth that is more than half -true--more true at least than its converse, which many hold. - -There is a large school to-day who assert that animals are “mere -machines.” Machines they may be: it is the qualification which does -not fit. I suppose that by saying “mere” machines it is meant to imply -that they have the soulless, steely quality of a machine which goes -when it is set going, stops when another lever is turned, acts only in -obedience to outer stimuli, and is in fact unemotional--a bundle of -operations without any quality meriting the name of a self. - -It is true that the further we push our analysis of animal behaviour, -the more we find it composed of a series of automatisms, the more we -see it rigorously determined by combination of inner constitution -and outer circumstance, the more we have cause to deny to animals -the possession of anything deserving the name of reason, ideals, or -abstract thought. The more, in fact, do they appear to us as mechanisms -(which is a much better word than machines, since this latter carries -with it definite connotations of metal or wood, electricity or steam). -They are mechanisms, because their mode of operation is regular; but -they differ from any other type of mechanism known to us in that their -working is--to put it in the most non-committal way--accompanied by -emotion. It is, to be sure, a combination of emotion with reason that -we attribute to a soul; but none the less, in popular parlance at -least, the emotional side is predominant, and pure reason is set over -against the emotional content which gives soul its essence. And this -emotional content we most definitely find running through the lives of -higher animals. - -The objection is easily and often raised that we have no direct -knowledge of emotion in an animal, no direct proof of the existence of -any purely mental process in its life. But this is as easily laid as -raised. We have no direct knowledge of emotion or any other conscious -process in the life of any human being save our individual selves; -and yet we feel no hesitation in deducing it from others’ behaviour. -Although it is an arguable point whether biological science may not for -the moment be better served by confining the subject-matter and terms -of analysis to behaviour alone, it is a very foolhardy “behaviorist” -indeed who denies the _existence_ of emotion and conscious process! - -But the practical value of this method of thinking is, as I say, an -arguable point; it is indeed clear that a great immediate advance, -especially in non-human biology, has been and may still be made -by translating the uncertain and often risky terms of subjective -psychology into those based upon the objective description of directly -observable behaviour. However, it is equally easy to maintain, and I -for one maintain it, that to omit a whole category of phenomena from -consideration is unscientific, and must in the long run lead to an -unreal, because limited, view of things; and that, when great detail of -analysis is not required, but only broad lines and general comparison, -the psychological terminology, of memory, fear, anger, curiosity, -affection, is the simpler and more direct tool, and should be used -to supplement and make more real the cumbersome and less complete -behavioristic terminology, of modification of behaviour, fright, -aggression, and the rest. - -It is at least abundantly clear that, if we are to believe in the -principle of uniformity at all, we must ascribe emotion to animals as -well as to men: the similarity of behaviour is so great that to assert -the absence of a whole class of phenomena in one case, its presence in -the other, is to make scientific reasoning a farce. - -“_Pas de cerveau--que de l’âme._” Those especially who have studied -birds will subscribe to this. The variety of their emotions is greater, -their intensity more striking, than in four-footed beasts, while their -power of modifying behaviour by experience is less, the subjection -to instinct more complete. Those who are interested in the details -can see from experiments, such as those recorded by Mr. Eliot Howard -in his _Territory in Bird Life_, how limited is a bird’s power of -adjustment; but I will content myself with a single example, one of -nature’s experiments, recorded by Mr. Chance last year by the aid of -the cinematograph--the behaviour of small birds when the routine of -their life is upset by the presence of a young Cuckoo in the nest. - -When, after prodigious exertions, the unfledged Cuckoo has ejected its -foster-brothers and sisters from their home, it sometimes happens that -one of them is caught on or close to the rim of the nest. One such -case was recorded by Mr. Chance’s camera. The unfortunate fledgling -scrambled about on the branches below the nest; the parent Pipit flew -back with food; the cries and open mouth of the ejected bird attracted -attention, and it was fed; and the mother then settled down upon the -nest as if all was in normal order. Meanwhile, the movements of the -fledgling in the foreground grew feebler, and one could imagine its -voice quavering off, fainter and fainter, as its vital warmth departed. -At the next return of the parent with food the young one was dead. - -It was the utter stupidity of the mother that was so impressive--its -simple response to stimulus--of feeding to the stimulus of the young’s -cry and open mouth, of brooding to that of the nest with something warm -and feathery contained in it--its neglect of any steps whatsoever to -restore the fallen nestling to safety. It was almost as pitiable an -exhibition of unreason as the well-attested case of the wasp attendant -on a wasp-grub, who, on being kept without food for some time, grew -more and more restless, and eventually bit off the hind end of the grub -and offered it to what was left! - -Birds in general are stupid, in the sense of being little able to -meet unforeseen emergencies; but their lives are often emotional, and -their emotions are richly and finely expressed. I have for years been -interested in observing the courtship and the relations of the sexes -in birds, and have in my head a number of pictures of their notable and -dramatic moments. These seem to me to illustrate so well the emotional -furnishing of birds, and to provide such a number of windows into that -strange thing we call a bird’s mind, that I shall simply set some of -them down as they come to me. - -First, then, the coastal plain of Louisiana; a pond, made and kept as -a sanctuary by that public-spirited bird-lover Mr. E. A. McIlhenny, -filled with noisy crowds of Egrets and little egret-like Herons. -These, in great flocks, fly back across the “Mexique Bay” in the -spring months from their winter quarters in South America. Arrived in -Louisiana, they feed and roost in flocks for a time, but gradually -split up into pairs. Each pair, detaching themselves from the flocks, -choose a nesting-site (by joint deliberation) among the willows and -maples of the breeding pond. And then follows a curious phenomenon. -Instead of proceeding at once to biological business in the shape of -nest-building and egg-laying, they indulge in what can only be styled -a honeymoon. For three or four days both members of the pair are -always on the chosen spot, save for the necessary visits which they -alternately pay to the distant feeding grounds. When both are there, -they will spend hours at a time sitting quite still, just touching -one another. Generally the hen sits on a lower branch, resting her -head against the cock bird’s flanks; they look for all the world like -one of those inarticulate but happy couples upon a bench in the park -in spring. Now and again, however, this passivity of sentiment gives -place to wild excitement. Upon some unascertainable cause the two birds -raise their necks and wings, and, with loud cries, intertwine their -necks. This is so remarkable a sight that the first time I witnessed -it I did not fully credit it, and only after it had happened before my -eyes on three or four separate occasions was I forced to admit it as -a regular occurrence in their lives. The long necks are so flexible -that they can and do make a complete single turn round each other--a -real true-lover’s-knot! This once accomplished, each bird then--most -wonderful of all--runs its beak quickly and amorously through the just -raised aigrettes of the other, again and again, nibbling and clappering -them from base to tip. Of this I can only say that it seemed to bring -such a pitch of emotion that I could have wished to be a Heron that -I might experience it. This over, they would untwist their necks and -subside once more into their usual quieter sentimentality. - -This, alas! I never saw with the less common little White Egrets, but -with the Louisiana Heron (which should, strictly speaking, be called an -egret too); but since every other action of the two species is (in all -save a few minor details) the same, I assume that the flashing white, -as well as the slate and vinous and grey birds, behave thus. - -The greeting ceremony when one bird of the pair, after having been -away at the feeding grounds, rejoins its mate is also beautiful. Some -little time before the human watcher notes the other’s approach, the -waiting bird rises on its branch, arches and spreads its wings, lifts -its aigrettes into a fan and its head-plumes into a crown, bristles up -the feathers of its neck, and emits again and again a hoarse cry. The -other approaches, settles in the branches near by, puts itself into -a similar position, and advances towards its mate; and after a short -excited space they settle down close together. This type of greeting is -repeated every day until the young leave the nest; for after the eggs -are laid both sexes brood, and there is a nest-relief four times in -every twenty-four hours. Each time the same attitudes, the same cries, -the same excitement; only now at the end of it all, one steps off the -nest, the other on. One might suppose that this closed the performance. -But no: the bird that has been relieved is still apparently animated -by stores of unexpended emotion; it searches about for a twig, breaks -it off or picks it up, and returns with it in beak to present to the -other. During the presentation the greeting ceremony is again gone -through; after each relief the whole business of presentation and -greeting may be repeated two, or four, or up even to ten or eleven -times before the free bird flies away. - -When there are numerous repetitions of the ceremony, it is extremely -interesting to watch the progressive extinction of excitement. During -the last one or two presentations the twig-bringing bird may scarcely -raise his wings or plumes, and will often betray an absent air, turning -his head in the direction in which he is proposing to fly off. - -No one who has seen a pair of Egrets thus change places on the nest, -bodies bowed forward, plumes a cloudy fan of lace, absolute whiteness -of plumage relieved by gold of eye and lore and black of bill, and the -whole scene animated by the repeated, excited cry, can ever forget it. -But such unforgettable scenes are not confined to other countries. Here -in England you can see as good; I have seen them on the reservoirs of -Tring, and within full view of the road by Frensham Pond--the courtship -forms and dances of the Crested Grebe. - -The Crested Grebe is happily becoming more familiar to bird-lovers -in England. Its brilliant white belly, protective grey-brown back, -rippleless and effortless diving, long neck, and splendid ruff and -ear-tufts of black, chestnut, and white, conspire to make it a marked -bird. In the winter the crest is small, and even when fully grown -in spring it is usually held close down against the head, so as to -be not at all conspicuous. When it is spread, it is almost, without -exception, in the service of courtship or love-making. Ten years ago I -spent my spring holiday watching these birds on the Tring reservoirs. -I soon found out that their courtship, like the Herons’, was mutual, -not one-sidedly masculine as in Peacocks or fowls. It consisted most -commonly in a little ceremony of head-shaking. The birds of a pair -come close, face one another, raise their necks, and half-spread -their ruffs. Then, with a little barking note, they shake their heads -rapidly, following this by a slow swinging of them from side to -side. This alternate shaking and swinging continues perhaps a dozen -or twenty times; and the birds then lower their standards, become -normal everyday creatures, and betake themselves to their fishing or -resting or preening again. This is the commonest bit of love-making; -but now and then the excitement evident even in these somewhat casual -ceremonies is raised to greater heights and seems to reinforce itself. -The little bouts of shaking are repeated again and again. I have seen -over eighty succeed each other uninterruptedly. And at the close the -birds do not relapse into ordinary life. Instead, they raise their -ruffs still further, making them almost Elizabethan in shape. Then one -bird dives; then the other: the seconds pass. At last, after perhaps -half or three-quarters of a minute (half a minute is a long time when -one is thus waiting for a bird’s reappearance!) one after the other -they emerge. Both hold masses of dark brownish-green weed, torn from -the bottom of the pond, in their beaks, and carry their heads down -and back on their shoulders, so that either can scarcely see anything -of the other confronting it save the concentric colours of the raised -ruff. In this position they swim together. It is interesting to see -the eager looks of the first-emerged, and its immediate start towards -the second when it too reappears. They approach, rapidly, until the -watcher wonders what will be done to avert a collision. The answer -is simple: there is no averting of a collision! But the collision is -executed in a remarkable way: the two birds, when close to each other, -leap up from the water and meet breast to breast, almost vertical, -suddenly revealing the whole flashing white under-surface. They keep -themselves in this position by violent splashings of the feet, rocking -a little from side to side as if dancing, and very gradually sinking -down (always touching with their breasts) towards the horizontal. - -Meanwhile, they exchange some of the weed they are carrying; or at -least nibbling and quick movements of the head are going on. And so -they settle down on to the water, shake their heads a few times more, -and separate, changing back from these performers of an amazing age-old -rite--age-old but ever fresh--into the feeding- and sleeping-machines -of every day, but leaving a vision of strong emotion, canalized into -the particular forms of this dive and dance. The whole performance -impresses the watcher not only with its strength, but as being -apparently of very little direct (though possibly much indirect) -biological advantage, the action being self-exhausting, not stimulating -to further sexual relations, and carried out, it would seem, for its -own sake. - -Further acquaintance with the Grebe only deepened the interest and made -clearer the emotional tinge underlying all the relations of the sexes. -This bird, too, has its “greeting ceremony”; but since, unlike the -colonial Herons and Egrets, it makes every effort to conceal its nest, -this cannot take place at its most natural moment, that of nest-relief, -but must be made to happen out on the open water where there are no -secrets to betray. If the sitting bird wishes to leave the nest, and -the other does not return, it flies off, after covering the eggs with -weed, in search of its mate; it is common in the breeding season to see -a Grebe in the “search-attitude,” with neck stretched up and slightly -forward and ear-tufts erected, emitting a special and far-carrying -call. When this call is recognized and answered, the two birds do -nothing so simple as to fly or swim to each other, but a special and -obviously exciting ceremony is gone through. The bird that has been -searched for and found puts itself into a very beautiful attitude, with -wings half-spread and set at right angles to the body, ruff erected -circularly, and head drawn back upon the shoulders, so that nothing -is visible but the brilliant rosette of the spread ruff in the centre -of the screen of wings, each wing showing a broad bar of brilliant -white on its dusk-grey surface. In this position it swings restlessly -back and forth in small arcs, facing towards its mate. The discoverer -meanwhile has dived; but, swimming immediately below the surface of the -water, its progress can be traced by the arrowy ripple it raises. Now -and again it lifts its head and neck above the water, periscope-wise, -to assure itself of its direction, and resumes its subaqueous course. -Nor does it rise just in front of the other bird; but swims under and -just beyond, and, as its mate swings round to the new orientation, -emerges in a really extraordinary attitude. At the last it must have -dived a little deeper; for now it appears perpendicularly from the -water, with a slowish motion, slightly spiral, the beak and head -pressed down along the front of the neck. I compared it in my notes -of ten years ago with “the ghost of a Penguin,” and that comparison -is still the best I can think of to give some idea of the strange -unreality of its appearance. It then settles down upon the water and -the pair indulge in one of their never-failing bouts of head-shaking. - -Two mated birds rejoin each other after a few hours’ separation. Simple -enough in itself--but what elaboration of detail, what piling on of -little excitements, what purveying of thrills! - -Other emotions too can be well studied in this bird, notably jealousy. -Several times I have seen little scenes like the following enacted. -A pair is floating idly side by side, necks drawn right down so that -the head rests on the centre of the back. One--generally, I must -admit, it has been the cock, but I think the hen may do so too on -occasion--rouses himself from the pleasant lethargy, swims up to -his mate, places himself in front of her, and gives a definite, if -repressed, shake of the head. It is an obvious sign of his desire to -“have a bit of fun”--to go through with one of those bouts of display -and head-shaking in which pleasurable emotion clearly reaches its -highest level in the birds’ lives, as any one who has watched their -habits with any thoroughness would agree. It also acts, by a simple -extension of function, as an informative symbol. The other bird knows -what is meant; it raises its head from beneath its wing, gives a -sleepy, barely discernible shake--and replaces the head. In so doing -it puts back the possibility of the ceremony and the thrill into its -slumbers; for it takes two to make love, for Grebe as for human. The -cock swims off; but he has a restless air, and in a minute or so is -back again, and the same series of events is run through. This may be -repeated three or four times. - -If now another hen bird, unaccompanied by a mate, reveals herself to -the eye of the restless and disappointed cock, he will make for her and -try the same insinuating informative head-shake on her; and, in the -cases that I have seen, she has responded, and a bout of shaking has -begun. Flirtation--illicit love, if you will; for the Grebe, during -each breeding season at least, is strictly monogamous, and the whole -economics of its family life, if I may use the expression, are based on -the co-operation of male and female in incubation and the feeding and -care of the young. On the other hand, how natural and how human! and -how harmless--for there is no evidence that the pretty thrills of the -head-shaking display ever lead on to anything more serious. - -But now observe. Every time that I have seen such a flirtation start, -it has always been interrupted. The mate, so sleepy before, yet must -have had one eye open all the time. She is at once aroused to action: -she dives, and attacks the strange hen after the fashion of Grebes, -from below, with an underwater thrust of the sharp beak in the belly. -Whether the thrust ever goes home I do not know. Generally, I think, -the offending bird becomes aware of the danger just in time, and, -squawking, hastily flaps off. The rightful mate emerges. What does she -do now? Peck the erring husband? Leave him in chilly disgrace? Not a -bit of it! She approaches with an eager note, and in a moment the two -are hard at it, shaking their heads; and, indeed, on such occasions you -may see more vigour and excitement thrown into the ceremony than at any -other time. - -Again we exclaim, how human! And again we see to what a pitch of -complexity the bird’s emotional life is tuned. - -It will have been observed that in the Grebe, whose chief skill lies -in its wonderful powers of diving, these powers have been utilized as -the raw material of several of the courtship ceremonies. This pressing -of the everyday faculties of the bird into the service of emotion, the -elevation and conversion of its useful powers of diving and underwater -swimming into ceremonials of passion, is from an evolutionary point -of view natural enough, and has its counterparts elsewhere. So in -the Divers, not too distant relatives of the Grebes, swimming and -diving have their rôle in courtship. Here too the thrilling, vertical -emergence close to the mate takes place; and there is a strange -ceremony in which two or three birds plough their way through the water -with body set obliquely--hinder parts submerged, breast raised, and -neck stretched forward and head downward with that strange look of -rigidity or tension often seen in the courtship actions of birds. - -Or, again, I once saw (strangely enough from the windows of the -Headmaster’s house at Radley!) the aerial powers of the Kestrel -converted to the uses of courtship. The hen bird was sitting in a large -bush beyond the lawn. A strong wind was blowing, and the cock again -and again beat his way up against it, to turn when nearly at the house -and bear down upon the bush in an extremity of speed. Just when it -seemed inevitable that he would knock his mate off her perch and dash -himself and her into the branches, he changed the angle of his wings -to shoot vertically up the face of the bush; then turned and repeated -the play. Sometimes he came so near to her that she would start back, -flapping her wings, as if really fearing a collision. The wind was so -strong--and blowing away from me--that I could not hear what cries may -have accompanied the display. - -A friend of mine who knows the Welsh mountains and is a watcher of -birds as well, tells me that he has there seen the Peregrine Falcons -do the same thing: the same thing--except that the speed was perhaps -twice as great, and the background a savage rock precipice instead of a -Berkshire garden. - -Not only the activities of everyday life, but also those of -nest-building, are taken and used to build up the ceremonies of -courtship; but whereas in the former case the actions are simply those -which are most natural to and best performed by the bird, in the latter -there is, no doubt, actual association between the cerebral centres -concerned with nest-building and with sexual emotion in general. Thus -we almost invariably find the seizing of nest-material in the beak as -a part of courtship, and this is often extended to a presentation of -the material to the mate. This we see in the Grebes, with the dank -weeds of which their sodden nest is built; the Divers use moss in the -construction of theirs, and the mated birds repair to moss banks, -where they nervously pluck the moss, only to drop it again or throw it -over their shoulder. Among the Warblers, the males pluck or pick up a -leaf or twig, and with this in their beak hop and display before the -hens; and the Peewit plucks frenziedly at grass and straws. The Adelie -Penguins, so well described by Dr. Levick, make their nests of stones, -and use stones in their courtship. - -A curious, unnatural transference of object may sometimes be seen in -these Penguins. The normal course of things is for this brave but comic -creature, having picked up a stone in its beak, to come up before -another of opposite sex, and, with stiff bow and absurdly outstretched -flippers, to deposit it at the other’s feet. When, however, there are -men near the rookery, the birds will sometimes in all solemnity come -up to them with their stone offering and lay it at the feet of the -embarrassed or amused human being. - -The Adelies do not nest by their natural element the sea, but some way -away from it on stony slopes and rock patches; thus they cannot employ -their brilliant dives and feats of swimming in courtship, but content -themselves, apart from this presentation of household material, with -what Dr. Levick describes as “going into ecstasy”--spreading their -flippers sideways, raising their head quite straight upwards, and -emitting a low humming sound. This a bird may do when alone, or the two -birds of a pair may make a duet of it. In any case, the term applied -to it by its observer well indicates the state of emotion which it -suggests and no doubt expresses. - -The depositing of courtship offerings before men by the Penguins shows -us that there must be a certain freedom of mental connection in birds. -Here an act, properly belonging to courtship, is performed as the -outlet, as it were, of another and unusual emotion. The same is seen -in many song-birds, who, like the Sedge Warbler, sing loudly for anger -when disturbed near their nest; or in the Divers, who, when an enemy is -close to the nest, express the violence of their emotion by short sharp -dives which flip a fountain of spray into the air--a type of dive also -used as a sign of general excitement in courtship. - -Or, again, the actions may be performed for their own sake, as we may -say: because their performance, when the bird is full of energy and -outer conditions are favourable, gives pleasure. The best-known example -is the song of song-birds. This, as Eliot Howard has abundantly shown, -is in its origin and essential function a symbol of possession, of a -nesting territory occupied by a male--to other males a notice that -“trespassers will be prosecuted,” to females an invitation to settle, -pair, and nest. But in all song-birds, practically without exception, -the song is by no means confined to the short period during which it -actually performs these functions, but is continued until the young are -hatched, often to be taken up again when they have flown, or after the -moult, or even, as in the Song Thrush, on almost any sunny or warm day -the year round. - -And finally this leads on to what is perhaps the most interesting -category of birds’ actions--those which are not merely sometimes -performed for their own sake, although they possess other and -utilitarian function, but actually have no other origin or _raison -d’être_ than to be performed for their own sake. They represent, in -fact, true play or sport among ourselves; and seem better developed -among birds than among mammals, or at least than among mammals below -the monkey. True that the cat plays with the mouse, and many young -mammals, like kittens, lambs, and kids, are full of play; but the -playing with the mouse is more like the singing of birds outside the -mating season, a transference of a normal activity to the plane of -play; and the play of young animals, as Groos successfully exerted -himself to show, is of undoubted use. To be sure, the impulse to play -must be _felt_ by the young creature as an exuberance of emotion and -spirits demanding expression; but a similar impulse must be felt for -all instinctive actions. Psychologically and individually, if you like, -the action is performed for its own sake; but from the standpoint -of evolution and of the race it has been originated, or at least -perfected, as a practice ground for immature limbs and a training and -keeping ready of faculties that in the future will be needed in earnest. - -We shall best see the difference between mammals’ and birds’ behaviour -by giving some examples. A very strange one I saw in a pond near the -Egret rookery in Louisiana. Here, among other interesting birds, -were the Darters or Water Turkeys, curious-looking relatives of the -Cormorants, with long, thin, flexible neck, tiny head, and sharp beak, -who often swim with all the body submerged, showing nothing but the -snake-like neck above water. One of these was sitting on a branch of -swamp-cedar, solitary and apparently tranquil. But this tranquillity -must have been the cloak of boredom. For suddenly the bird, looking -restlessly about her (it was a hen), began to pluck at the little green -twigs near by. She pulled one off in her beak, and then, tossing her -head up, threw it into the air, and with dexterous twist caught it -again in her beak as it descended. After five or six successful catches -she missed the twig. A comic sideways and downward glance at the twig, -falling and fallen, in meditative immobility; and then another twig -was broken off, and the same game repeated. She was very clever at -catching; the only bird that I have seen come up to her was a Toucan in -the Zoo which could catch grapes thrown at apparently any speed. But -then the Toucan had been specially trained--and had the advantage of a -huge capacity of bill! - -Here again it might, of course, be said that the catching of twigs is -a practice for beak and eye, and helps keep the bird in training for -the serious business of catching fish. This is no doubt true; but, as -regards the evolution of the habit, I incline strongly to the belief -that it must be quite secondary--that the bird, desirous of occupying -its restless self in a satisfying way, fell back upon a modification of -its everyday activities, just as these are drawn upon in other birds -to provide much of the raw material of courtship. There is no evidence -that young Darters play at catching twigs as preparation for their -fishing, and until there is evidence of this it is simpler to think -that the play habit here, instead of being rooted by the utilitarian -dictates of natural selection in the behaviour of the species, as with -kids or kittens, is a secondary outcome of leisure and restlessness -combining to operate with natural aptitude--in other words, true sport, -of however simple a kind. - -The commonest form of play in birds is flying play. Any one who has -kept his eyes open at the seaside will have seen the Herring Gulls -congregate in soaring intersecting spirals where the cliff sends the -wind upwards. But such flights are nothing compared with those of other -birds. Even the staid black-coated Raven may sometimes be seen to go -through a curious performance. One I remember, all alone, flying along -the side of a mountain near Oban; but instead of progressing in the -conventional way, he flew diagonally upwards for a short distance, then -giving a special croak with something of gusto in it, turned almost -completely over on to his back, and descended a corresponding diagonal -in this position. Then with a strong flap of the wings he righted -himself, and so continued until he disappeared round the shoulder of -the hill half a mile on. It reminded me of a child who has learnt some -new little trick of step or dance-rhythm, and tries it out happily all -the way home along the road. Mr. Harold Massingham has seen the Ravens’ -games too, and set them down more vividly than I can.[26] He also is -clear that they play for the love of playing, and even believes that -their love of sport has helped their downfall to rarity by rendering -them too easy targets for the gunner. - -Or again, at the Egret rookery in Louisiana, at evening when the birds -returned in great numbers, they came back with steady wing-beats along -an aerial stratum about two hundred feet up. Arrived over their nesting -pond, they simply let themselves drop. Their plumes flew up behind like -a comet’s tail; they screamed aloud with excitement; and, not far -above the level of the trees, spread the wings so that they caught the -air again, and as result skidded and side-slipped in the wildest and -most exciting-looking curves before recovering themselves with a brief -upward glide and settling carefully on the branches. This certainly had -no significance for courtship; and I never saw it done save over the -pond at the birds’ return. It seemed to be simply an entertaining bit -of sport grafted on to the dull necessity of descending a couple of -hundred feet. - -Examples could be multiplied: Rooks and Crows, our solemn English -Heron, Curlew, Swifts, Snipe--these and many others have their own -peculiar flying sports. What is clear to the watcher is the emotional -basis of these sports--a joy in controlled performance, and excitement -in rapidity of motion, in all essentials like the pleasure to us of a -well-hit ball at golf, or the thrill of a rapid descent on sledge skis. - -For any one to whom the evolution theory is one of the master-keys -to animate nature, there must be an unusual interest in tracing out -the development of lines of life that, like the birds’, have diverged -comparatively early from the line which eventually and through many -vicissitudes led to Man. - -In the birds as in the mammals, and quite separately in the two groups, -we see the evolution not only of certain structural characters such as -division of heart, compactness of skeleton, increase of brain-size, -not only of physiological characters like warm-bloodedness or -efficiency of circulation, but also of various psychical characters. -The power of profiting by experience becomes greater, as does that of -distinguishing between objects; and there is most markedly an increase -in the intensity of emotion. It has somehow been of advantage, direct -or indirect, to birds to acquire a greater capacity for affection, for -jealousy, for joy, for fear, for curiosity. In birds the advance on the -intellectual side has been less, on the emotional side greater: so that -we can study in them a part of the single stream of life where emotion, -untrammelled by much reason, has the upper hand. - - -BIBLIOGRAPHY - - Chance, E., ’22. “The Cuckoo’s Secret.” London, 1922. - - Darwin, C., ’71. “The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to - Sex.” London, 1871. - - Groos, K., ’98. “The Play of Animals.” New York, 1898. - - Howard, E., ’20. “Territory in Bird Life.” London, 1920. - - Hudson, W. H., ’12. “The Naturalist in La Plata” (5th Ed.). - London, 1912. - - Huxley, J. S., ’14 and ’23. (Courtship in Birds) Proc. Zool. Soc., - 1914, and Proc. Linn. Soc., 1923. - - Kirkman, F. B. (ed.), ’10. “British Bird Book.” London, 1910. - - Levick, G. M., ’14. “Antarctic Penguins.” London, 1914. - - Massingham, H. J., ’23. “The Ravens.” _Nation and Athenæum._ - London, 21st April, 1923. - - Selous, E., ’01. “Bird Watching.” London, 1901. - - Selous, E., ’05. “Bird Life Glimpses.” London, 1905. - - -FOOTNOTE: - -[26] Massingham, ’23. - - - - -IV - -SEX BIOLOGY AND SEX PSYCHOLOGY - - - SEX: THREE WAYS - - That body has for soul an air-balloon - Which drifts with every spiritual blast, - Doomed, swollen thing! to leak or burst at last - Though overmuch aspiring toward the moon. - - This other soul, below the animal, - Bloating and coating body’s baser parts - With the manure of its desires and arts, - Helps flesh to grow still more corporeal. - - I pray that I may still inhabit earth, - Where grass invites the foot, and roses smell; - Yet shall I lead my body on to dwell - In the eternal land of second birth, - If, nought contemned, each part of being’s whole - Is taken up in my transmuting soul. - - - - -SEX BIOLOGY AND SEX PSYCHOLOGY[27] - - - “And now I see with eye serene - The very pulse of the machine.” - --W. WORDSWORTH. - - - “There is reason to believe that the processes which underlie - all great work in art, literature, or science take place - unconsciously, or at least unwittingly. It is an interesting - question to ask whence comes the energy of which this work is the - expression. There are two chief possibilities: one, that it is - derived from the instinctive tendencies which, through the action - of controlling forces, fail to find their natural outlet; the - other, that the energy so arising is increased in amount through - the conflict between controlled and controlling forces.”--W. H. - RIVERS. - - -The biology of sex is a vast subject. Not only are there questions of -sex-determination, but the whole sexual selection problem has to be -considered, together with the evolutionary function of sex, and its -first origin. I can only attempt, in the short space at my disposal, to -deal with one or two of the chief points, and only in so far as they -bear on questions of human sex psychology. - -In the first place, then, we have to consider the evolutionary history -of sex. Of its origin we can say only that it is veiled in complete -obscurity. Once present, however, it appears to have a definite -function by making possible, through sexual reproduction, all the -various combinations of any heritable variations that may arise -in different individuals of a species, and so conferring greater -evolutionary plasticity on the species as a whole.[28] - -Primarily, sex implies only the fusion of nuclei from two separate -individuals; there is no need for sex differences to exist at all. Sex -differences, however, are almost universal in sexually-reproducing -organisms, and represent a division of labour between the active male -cell and the passive female cell, the former taking over the task of -uniting the two, the latter storing up nutriment for the new individual -that will result from that union. - -The subsequent history of sex is, roughly speaking, the history of its -invasion of more and more of the organization of its possessors. First -the male as a whole, and not merely its reproductive cells, tends to -become organized for finding the female. The female’s whole type of -metabolism is altered to produce the most efficient storage of reserve -material in her ova, and later she almost invariably protects and -nourishes the young during the first part of their development, either -within or without her own body. Appropriate instincts are of course -developed in both male and female. - -At the outset there is enormous waste incurred in the liberation of -sperms and ova into the water, there to unite as best they may. -Congress of the sexes eliminates the major part of this waste, and is -universal above a certain level. This is in itself the basis for other -changes. As the mind, or shall we say the psycho-neural organization, -becomes more complex, the sexual instinct becomes more interwoven with -the general emotional state; and a large number of animals appear not -to mate unless their emotional state has been raised to a certain -level. The result of this is that special actions, associated generally -with bright colours or striking structures, with song or with scent, -come into being. - -The exact mechanism of the appearance of these courtship-displays is a -much-vexed point; but it is undoubted that they only occur in animals -with congress of the sexes and with minds above a certain level of -complexity, and that they are employed in ceremonies between the two -sexes at mating-time. There can subsist no reasonable doubt that there -exists some causal connection between the associated facts. - -An important point, which has been commonly overlooked, is that such -characters and actions may be either developed in one sex only, or in -both. In a large number of birds, such as egrets, grebes, cranes, and -many others, the courtship-displays are mutual, and the characters used -in them developed to a similar extent in both sexes. Such characters -are therefore often not secondary sexual differences, and we had best -use Poulton’s term _epigamic_ for them, whether they are developed in -one or in both sexes.[29] - -The human species, in accordance with its complexity and flexibility -of brain, has epigamic characters of both kinds. Some, like voice and -moustache, are different in the two sexes, others, such as colour of -eyes and lips, the hairlessness of the body and grace of limbs and -carriage, are common to both. - -In the vertebrate stock, two main lines of evolution as regards -sexual relationships may be traced. The first is predominant in -mammals: here, in most species, the female will not receive the male -except at fixed times, which are determined by a purely physiological -mechanism, the internal secretion of the gonad (reproductive organ). -Here we consequently find that the rule is for the males to fight for -the possession of the females, not to display before them. In the -monkeys, presumably as a result of a lessened dependence of mental -upon physiological processes, bright colours and special adornments of -various parts of the body are frequently developed.[30] - -In the birds, on the other hand, although here too the internal -secretion of the gonad delimits a period in which alone congress of -the sexes can occur, it does not act for such a sharply-limited time -as in the mammal, nor is it so intense as completely to override -other components of the mind. As a result, general emotional stimulus -may play an important part in inducing readiness to pair, and we -accordingly find display of some sort, either by the male alone or by -both sexes, present in the great majority of species. It is at least -partly in correlation with this that beauty of voice and brilliant -appearance is far commoner in birds than in mammals. - -The monkeys represent in some way a transitional stage towards that -seen in man, in whom the conditions have come to resemble those found -in birds, with consequent great development of epigamic characters and -actions of one sort and another, both physical and mental. Thus we see -that sex, after invading and altering the conformation of the body, -finally invades and alters the conformation of the mind. - -As regards the other great biological question, of the determination of -sex, a very few words will suffice. In the first place I have no time -to consider plants or lower animals. In almost all higher animals that -have been investigated, however, there has been found some hereditary -mechanism for ensuring a rough constancy of sex-ratio. This mechanism -resides in the so-called _chromosomes_ of the nucleus. These exist -for the most part in similar pairs in both sexes: but one pair is -dissimilar in one sex. In mammals and man this sex is the male. Man -possesses one chromosome less than woman. He possesses only one member -of this pair of special sex-chromosomes, whereas she possesses two. All -her ova are alike in possessing one, whereas half his sperms possess -one, half possess none. Therefore, when the former kind of sperms -fertilize an ovum, two sex-chromosomes are present in the fertilized -egg and a female results; when the latter, only one, and the offspring -is male.[31] - -Putting the matter in the broadest terms, we can say that there is a -different balance of hereditary factors in male and female, and that -this difference of balance dates from the moment of fertilization, and -normally determines sex. - -Various agencies may alter the balance. The chromosomes themselves may -vary in what we must vaguely call their potency; or external agencies -may affect it. As a result, we sometimes obtain strange abnormal -individuals, in which the balance has been upset; in them development -results sometimes in organisms permanently intermediate between male -and female, sometimes in a change of sex at some period of development. - -In insects the chromosomes appear to be predominant throughout life. -In vertebrates, however, they seem to play their chief rôle in early -development, ending by building up either a male or a female gonad in -the early embryo. This, once produced, takes over what remains of the -task of sex-determination. It secretes a specific internal secretion -which in a male acts so as to encourage the growth of male organs and -instincts, to suppress those of females; and vice versa in a female. - -As a result of this difference we find that castration in insects, even -followed by engrafting of a gonad of opposite sex, produces no effect -upon other sexual characters; whereas it exerts a profound effect upon -mammals or birds. - -As a second result, we find that in vertebrates the gonads form part -of what has been called the chemical directorate of the body--the -interlocking system of endocrine glands, each of which is exerting an -effect upon the rest. The importance of this is seen in the experiments -of Steinach, Sand, Voronoff, and others, who have been able to obtain -a rejuvenating effect in senile mammals by increasing, by various -methods, the amount of secreting reproductive organ in the body.[32] - -To what then has our rapid survey led us? The actual origin of sex -is lost to us in the mists of a time inconceivably remote. Its -preservation once in existence, and its present all-but-universal -distribution seem to be definitely associated with the biological -advantage of the plasticity which it confers. Later, the primary -difference between male and female--their power of producing different -sorts of reproductive cells--leads on to secondary differences. -These differences may be biologically speaking non-significant, mere -accidents of the primary difference. Or they may be in the nature -of a division of labour between the sexes, this division of labour -usually concerning the protection of the embryo or the care of the -young, or more rarely the preservation of the individual itself. Or, -finally, they may concern the more efficient union of the gametes; -such differences may merely affect the ducts and apertures of the -reproductive system, and be more or less mechanical; or they may -concern the use of these systems, in the form of still mechanical -instincts, or they may be concerned in some way or other with the -emotional side of the animals, and consist in characters and actions -which stimulate the emotions of the other sex, characters which we have -termed epigamic. - -It is only in higher groups that these emotion-stimulating sexual -characters arise, for only in them has mind reached a sufficient degree -of perfection. But even though detailed study reveals in a bird or a -mammal a mental life of a complexity far more considerable than the -average man would imagine, yet on the whole it is straightforward and -its currents run fairly direct from stimulus to fulfilment. - -When we reach man, however, the whole aspect of the matter changes. -The change is most marked, naturally, in his mental organization. -Through his powers of rapid and unlimited association, any one part of -his experience can be combined with any other; through his powers of -generalizing and of giving names to things, his experience is far more -highly organized than that of any animal; through speech and writing he -is inheritor of a continuous tradition which enormously enlarges his -range of experience. Again, he can frame a purpose and thus put the -objective of his actions far further into the future than can lower -organisms. - -There are, however, also changes of considerable biological importance -on the physical side. Man brings with him from his animal ancestors -the endocrine secretory mechanism of the reproductive organs: but his -life is not subordinated to it in such an iron-bound way. To start with -he has gradually lost all semblance of a breeding-season. Traces of -it survive in some primitive races, but in civilized communities all -one can say is that the number of births may show a slight seasonal -variation; and the reproductive organs are capable of function in all -twelve months of the year--a state of affairs known, I believe, in no -other vertebrate, or at least in no wild species.[33] - -In the second place, there has been in the female a further -emancipation of the sexual life. In all other mammals the female will -only receive the male at certain well-defined periods, which in their -turn depend on cyclical changes in the ovaries. In man this restriction -has been overcome, and, in spite of the survival of a certain degree -of cyclical change in feeling, neither sex is restricted any longer -to certain physically-determined periods for the consummation of its -sexual life. This is, we may say, a triumph of mind over matter in the -human organism, of the mental elements of the sexual life over the -purely physical elements. - -This is not to deny that the sexual life of man is dependent upon -the reproductive hormones. It is apparently necessary for proper -activation of the sexual centres in the brain that there should occur -a continuous liberation of secretion from the reproductive organs -into the blood. Again, the mental activities of man are so much more -important than those of other forms that even the cessation of activity -of the reproductive organs, for instance in the female at the change of -life, or even their total removal, need not prevent the continuation, -albeit in a modified form, of the sexual life in its varied indirect -manifestations. - -Before attempting to probe the intricacies of the mental side of the -subject, we had better see what we can learn of the physical. Let -us first remind ourselves of one or two facts gained from animal -experimentation. In the first place, in mammals the activation of the -sexual instincts of one or the other sex appears to be completely -or almost completely under the control of the internal secretions -of the reproductive organs. Steinach and others have taken new-born -male guinea-pigs and have removed their testes and grafted ovaries -in their place. The result has been an animal almost completely -feminized both as regards body and mind. In some of the animals milk -was secreted, and when this occurred they would act as foster-mothers -to new-born guinea-pigs of other parents. The reverse operation, the -masculinization of females, was equally successful, the animals growing -large and showing all the instincts of a normal male and none of those -of a normal female. - -A similar dependence of behaviour on gonad is seen in fowls. Here -nature makes a number of experiments, which have recently been studied -by Dr. Crew of Edinburgh. When the ovaries of a hen are affected by a -certain type of tumour, the bird stops laying, her comb and wattles -enlarge to the size of a cock’s, her spurs grow, she begins to crow, -her plumage changes at the moult and becomes cock-like, and finally -she becomes indistinguishable from a male. Indistinguishable, even in -behaviour: her years of feminine routine in laying and brooding are -forgotten: the secretion of the altered ovary now apparently resembles -that of a testis and stimulates centres of the brain which would -otherwise have remained permanently dormant. She struts and crows, -fights and mates, and the memory of the previous part of her life is -for all practical purposes lost, since the centres for female activity -are no longer stimulated at all. - -Various workers have even experimentally produced a state of -hermaphroditism in mammals by simultaneous grafting of portions of -testes and ovary: the behaviour here oscillates between male and -female.[34] - -It is quite clear from these and other facts that in higher vertebrates -there are present in every individual of either sex the nervous -connections which give the possibility of either male or female -behaviour; but that normally only one of these two possibilities is -realized, since for the potentiality of action given by the nervous -connections to become actual as behaviour it is necessary for the -nervous system to be activated by the secretion of one or other of -the reproductive organs. Castrated animals fail to realize either -possibility of normal sex-behaviour, although their nervous machinery -is untouched. - -There are, further, some facts of observation which, even if they have -not yet been fully analysed by experiment, still throw light on the -matter. Although many of the most familiar birds--fowls, pheasant, -peacock, duck, finches, and so forth--have bright-coloured males and -drab females, with marked difference of behaviour between the sexes, -there are, as we have seen, many others, such as herons, divers, swans, -grebes, moorhens, and auks, in which the sexes are alike in plumage -and furthermore show what may be called a “mutual” courtship in which -both male and female play similar rôles. In this latter class it seems -clear that the secretions of the male and female reproductive organs -must be more alike than in the markedly dimorphic species: and this -is borne out by some strange facts regarding not merely the courtship -but the actions concerned with pairing itself. In the crested grebe -and the little grebe, for example, close observation has shown that -either member of the pair may assume the passive “female” attitude or -the active “male” attitude in pairing: and in the moorhen we meet with -the still more extraordinary phenomenon of double pairing, in which an -act of pairing with male and female in normal position is immediately -followed by a second act in which the normal position is reversed.[35] -It would appear in such cases that the similarity of male and female -internal secretion is so great that quite slight changes in nervous or -metabolic activity can cause the nervous centres for the opposite sex’s -mode of behaviour to become activated. - -In human beings we are confronted with various grades of sexual -organization and behaviour besides the typically feminine and the -typically masculine. In the first place it is matter of common -knowledge that many women, who so far as their physical reproductive -capacity goes are perfectly normal, show various mental traits which -are more characteristic of men, and vice versa. What is more, the -“masculinoid” woman (to use the current jargon) tends physically -also to be less feminine, to have the feminine secondary sexual -characteristics in stature, form of skeleton, distribution of fat, -breasts, etc.--less strongly developed than normal, while the -“feminoid” man shows the reverse tendency.[36] - -In trying to analyse these facts further, we are brought up against new -depths of complication. It is becoming ever clearer that the gonads do -not operate as independent organs, but in conjunction with the whole -of the rest of the endocrine system--thyroid, pituitary, adrenal, and -the rest. In the first place, it seems to be established that the -reproductive organs must be in some way activated by other ductless -glands before they become normal, just as they in their turn must -activate the sexual centres in the brain. This phase of the matter is -being investigated by many workers to-day; provisionally we may say -that pituitary and adrenal cortex are especially concerned. In the -second place the gonads, once activated and in normal working order, -react upon the other ductless glands. It thus comes about that the -relative proportion or relative activity of the parts of the whole -ductless gland system is different in male and female. Blair Bell is -the protagonist of this view. A woman is a woman, he says, not merely -because of her ovaries, but because of all her internal secretions, of -her endocrine balance as a whole. - -It cannot be said that we have any certainty on the details of this -subject. It is clear, however, that some such fundamental difference -does exist, and it is therefore further probable that if a woman has a -thyroid, say, or an adrenal which for some reason (and there are many -possible reasons) is producing an amount of secretion abnormal for a -woman but more like that which is produced by a man, she will, in spite -of her ovaries, be more masculine in tendency. - -I will content myself with one example. The cortex of the adrenal -gland, if active beyond a certain measure, assists the development -of male, prevents the development of female, characters. Women with -adrenal tumours frequently develop moustache and beard and other -appanages of the male. One presumes that a slight preponderance of the -adrenal cortex in the normal endocrine make-up will lead to a less -feminine type of woman than normal. I repeat that we are but on the -verge of the matter and that premature speculation is certainly risky -and probably fallacious. But all the same, there is very little doubt -that we are on the right track, and that we shall have to search for -the finer shades of temperamental difference between man and woman -not so much in differences in the quality of the secretion of testis -or ovary as in differences of balance in what the Americans call the -“endocrine make-up.”[37] - -There is, however, also the possibility of difference in the quality -of gonad secretion, and of recent years Steinach and his followers -have been claiming that this may be at the bottom of many cases of -so-called “perversion of sexual instinct.” The latest claim of this -school is that homosexual men may be rendered heterosexual in instinct -by removal of their testes and implantation of a testis from a sexually -normal person--from a man, for example, who is being operated on for -cryptorchidism. It is frankly impossible as yet to say whether their -conclusions are well founded: a very much larger series of cases -will be necessary, and the possibility of suggestion’s action must -be eliminated. It is well to remember, however, that there is no -theoretical objection to the possibility. We know that in various -lower animals, such as moths and flies, the balance between the -male- and female-determining factors in the chromosomes may be altered -in certain crosses, and that this altered balance in the constitution -is reflected in some cases in a state permanently intermediate -between male and female, in others by a reversal of sex at some point -during development. For various reasons we should not usually expect -reversal in mammals; but if such abnormal balance should exist in the -constitution, as it well might, we should expect a gonad secreting an -abnormal, intermediate secretion. This we might also expect as the -result of certain accidents of embryonic life, as actually happens in -the abnormal female cattle known to farmers as free-martins. These -animals are always born co-twin to a male, and their abnormality is due -to the blood-systems of the embryonic membranes of the twins having -fused, so that the secretion of the developing male’s gonad acts upon -the developing female. - -Further light on abnormally-directed sex-instinct is thrown by recent -analysis of abnormal domestic animals by Crew.[38] In both goats and -swine he finds that by far the commonest form of sexual abnormality is -one in which the external appearance, at least in youth, is so nearly -female as to raise no question in the mind of the casual observer; -about the time of maturity, however, male secondary sex characters -begin to develop, including male instincts; and dissection reveals -the presence of a double set of ducts--the female uterus and vagina, -the male epididymis and vas deferens, but only a single uniform -reproductive organ, and that always a testis. The simplest explanation -(although it is admittedly tentative) appears to be that the testis -has not been activated during embryonic and juvenile life, and that -therefore until puberty the animal, though really male, has been -physiologically in a neutral state, which permits the growth of the -internal apparatus proper to both sexes. Externally, the “neutral” -condition approximates more closely to the female type, and the animal -is thus first classed as a female. Some other gland is then responsible -for the second activation at puberty, and this occurs in a normal -manner. - -This is of considerable interest, since it appears that in man too the -largest class of sexually abnormal individuals are those whose external -appearance is almost or quite feminine, but who possess male instincts. -It is at least probable that examination will show that they, too, or -many of them, will be of the type described above--males with delayed -activation of testis, a consequent classification as female at birth, -and a girl’s upbringing, with male instincts arising in the unhappy -creature at puberty. - -It is the fashion nowadays to write down abnormal sexual psychology -wholly to the account of the mind, to an abnormal development with -causes entirely psychological. It is clear, however, that if some -abnormal individuals can be cured by implantation, and others are -abnormal owing to an early failure of activation, this conception falls -to the ground, and the Freudian is robbed of some of his most cherished -examples. - -In any case, the work on animals definitely shows that, unless the -mechanism of activation of instinct by gonad secretion has altered -between animal and man more than we have any right to postulate a -priori, the quality of gonad secretion and the balance of all the -endocrines has to be taken into account far more than is done by the -average psycho-analyst. - -This, however, is not to say that the genesis of our attitude towards -sex, our sexual behaviour, and our general mental organization in so -far as modified by sex, is not normally determined for the most part -by purely psychological causes. If there is a physical abnormality, -this will react upon the mental; but in the vast majority of cases -the physical variation will not take the individual beyond the limits -of normality, and when the normal physical limits are not exceeded, -the wide range of mental variation still observable is to be ascribed -to psychological causes. In other words, abnormal sexual behaviour -and instinct may be due either to physiological or psychological -abnormality, and the latter is probably the commoner cause. - -I am not competent to attempt to treat of the vast and complex -psychological aspect of the sex-problem which the analytical -psychologists have opened up to such an extent within the last few -years; I can only deal with it in the broadest way, and content myself -rather with stating than with solving problems. - -As regards the place of sex in our mental organization, there are two -contradictory extremes possible. Either all ideas connected with the -physical side of sex may be repressed with great vehemence, and the -sexual contribution to various emotions ignored or dismissed, while a -constant attempt is made at sublimation; or else there is little or no -repression beyond that necessitated by convention and custom, sexual -matters are taken at their physical face value, and sublimation is not -consciously attempted and exists only to a negligible amount. - -There is no doubt that the first alternative represents one of the -commonest neuroses of modern life, and one in which an interpretation -on principles made familiar by psycho-analysis is the most -satisfactory. Repression, through whatever cause initiated (and -psychologists, I understand, are coming more and more to recognize -that chronic misuse of the mind as well as single violent shocks may -be effective), leads to a more or less complete dissociation of two -parts of the mind, of which one only is in the main connected with -the conscious personal life. As a result, curious phenomena are met -with. There is, it is true, a constant effort necessary to keep life -a-going with the aid of an incomplete mental organization; but when -satisfaction is attained, its very rarity brings with it a certain -glow, an irradiation of peculiarly pleasurable nature. Furthermore, -dissociation in most cases is not complete; now and again, and -especially when there is successful sublimation--in some people when in -love, in others with religious ecstasy, in others again with some form -of art--now and again re-association of the parts occurs, and there is -an extraordinary sense of the irruption of some vast beneficent force, -some great extra-personal flood of soul, into the meagre stream of -everyday life. The lives of a certain number of saints and ascetics, -mystics and poets, abound with phenomena of this sort; and apparently -the sense of value attaching to the occasional complete attainment of -such satisfactory states of the soul, combined with the conscious daily -quest for sublimation which is inevitable when the most important part -of the primitive emotions are repressed, is such a vivid experience -that it satisfies the mind and enables such persons to carry on, and to -do work sometimes of the highest value. - -On the other hand, men and women with this type of mental development -naturally tend to be unstable; they cannot be sure of their capacity, -whether for routine work or creative thought or spiritual experience, -from day to day. Their mental life has a tendency to wear thin, their -sense of effort and struggle to increase and lead to breakdown. It -is in the long run an unsatisfactory way of organizing the psyche, -because the conscious mind has less than it ought to have upon which to -fall back. - -The opposite extreme is equally unsatisfactory. If individuals of the -first type are trying to build high without adequate foundations, those -of the second are mistaking the foundations for a complete building. -A dissociation of a different type occurs in them--a dissociation due -to lack of use, to a mere failure to connect up that part of the mind -concerned with sexual emotion with a great many of the mind’s other -activities. Thus the sexual side has few and lower values associated -with it than it might, and other possibilities of thought and feeling -and action remain as mere possibilities, never realized in actuality. -The result is a definitely incomplete personality of a more or less -arrested or rudimentary type. - -Those are the extremes: of course there are all intermediates between -them. They may crop up with apparent spontaneity, determined more -by the hereditary constitution of the man or woman than by external -happenings: or they may be mainly or at least largely determined by the -accidents of the environment during the period before maturity. One -of the most potent factors in the environment will be the attitude of -the parents towards sexual matters. On the one hand they may adopt the -common, horror-stricken attitude towards sex, hushing it up, making -it clear to the sensitive mind of childhood that there is something -thoroughly bad about it, and so laying the best possible foundations -for future repression. Or, on the other hand, they may openly adopt -the psycho-analytic view as to the rôle of sex in the development of -mind, may further believe that the fullest analysis and self-knowledge -is always desirable, and may accordingly be pointing out to the -child interpretations of its actions and sayings in terms of sex, -familiarizing it with sex from the outset, not merely not discouraging -but actually encouraging reference to sexual matters. This will tend, -_ceteris paribus_, to the development of a mind in which many of the -more complex mental operations will not usually persist because the -subject will be continually unbuilding them into their constituent -parts, of which sex will be the most unvarying and important. - -Both these types are to my judgment obviously unsatisfactory. The ideal -organization of the mind must be one in which first there is a minimum -of waste of energy, secondly a maximum realization of potentiality. -The operations of mind may further be thought of from two different -angles--a subserving the biological needs of the organism, or as -ends in themselves. From the first point of view, thought is action -_in posse_: efficiency and full utilization of energy are here the -requirements, and it is obvious that any method which even partially -separates one part of the mental organization from the rest must be a -poor one, that a refusal to face any portion of reality, such as, in -our special case, the physical side of sex, must put the organism at a -disadvantage in a world in which that portion of reality plays, as it -obviously does, an important rôle. - -The correct type of organization is one of the type which has been -developed over and over again in the course of evolution, for -different functions: it is the hierarchical one, in which some parts -are dominant, others subordinate, the dominant parts helpless without -the subordinate, the subordinate different, through the fact of their -subordination, from what they would otherwise have been, doing most of -the hard work, but under the guidance of the dominant. Only in this way -is a unitary organization arrived at in which there is the minimum of -waste, of antagonism between the parts. - -The psycho-analysts have, by analysing the pathology of mind, shown -us how waste of energy may arise in particular cases, and so make it -easier for us to avoid it in general. - -One may recognize the merits of Freud as an investigator without -accepting all or even the majority of his conclusions. As the late -W. H. Rivers pointed out, Freud will always be remembered in the -history of psychology because he introduced new ideas and new methods -into the science. Previous workers had discovered the realm of the -subconscious; but they had not discovered the real nature of its -relation to the rest of the mental organization. Freud pointed out -that there was often a biological value attached to the power of -forgetting as well as to that of remembering, and that in any case -in most of us a large amount of experience is rendered unconscious by -suppression, or an attempt made to force it into the unconscious by -repression. He and his followers and other schools of psychologists -have pointed out the importance of unresolved conflicts in determining -thought and behaviour, and have made it clear that in the ordinary -civilized community of to-day a large proportion of those conflicts -arise out of difficulties connected with the sex-instinct. And, even -if we reject the extreme claims made by many Freudians, we must admit -that psycho-analysis has shown that many cases of actual perversion -of instinct may be cured by analytic methods, and that sex occupies a -very much larger space in the mind than was previously supposed. It -had not been previously supposed, because of the fact that it tends to -appear in consciousness in disguised form--either sublimated and thus -intertwined with other emotions and instincts or with unusual objects, -or else rationalized as something else, or kept below the surface of -consciousness as an unfulfilled wish; and because there is a resistance -in most of us to recognizing its importance. - -This revolution in our thought has proved very unpalatable to many. In -just the same way as a large proportion of Darwin’s opponents opposed -him because they believed that to accept man’s simian origin was a -repulsive degradation, so many of the opponents of psycho-analysis -oppose it because they believe that to ascribe this huge rôle to sex -in the genesis of our psyche is a repulsive degradation. - -To my mind there are two very general questions which the student of -human sex psychology now has to face, if he takes not necessarily -the whole but the central theses of psycho-analysis, however much -pruned, as proven. The first is this: granted that sex does play such -a large part, especially in early years, in the genesis of our mental -organization, is it desirable that the average adult or adolescent -should, by analysis, be given full self-knowledge on the subject? - -The second is this: granted that sex does penetrate into more corners -of mind in man than in lower organisms, is this really a regrettable -thing, or can we find any grounds for believing it to be desirable or -biologically progressive? - -To answer this we shall have to go back a little to first principles, -and consider, however briefly, certain facts as to the march of -evolution. - -Evolution is essentially progressive. It proceeds on the whole in -a certain direction, and that direction is on the whole towards a -realization of what seems to us to have positive value. The direction, -however, as a matter of fact, is most striking when we consider the -maximum level attained, much less so when we consider the average, not -at all when we look at the minimum. - -The method or mechanism of progress may differ in different types, -and it does differ in man from that which is found in other mammals. -In most higher animals progress is brought about chiefly by natural -selection operating upon individuals, although in a few forms selection -operates chiefly upon groups of communities: in both cases the changes -in the inherited constitution of the species are the important -changes. In man, however, in all except the very early stages of -his development, changes in inherited constitution have been small -and unimportant, and the chief changes of evolutionary significance -have been those in tradition; selection among individuals has been -of relatively little importance, and selection has fallen mainly -upon groups and, to an ever-increasing extent, upon their ideas and -traditions. - -In spite of differences in method as between different types of -organism, the tendency has been in the same direction--towards -a possibility of greater control, greater independence, greater -complexity, and greater regulation or harmony. - -Looked at from the evolutionary point of view, the moving, dynamic -point of view, we have to think of human sex-psychology in yet another -way. So far we have been treating it as what it is; now we must think -of what it may become. - -The general rule in evolution--the natural and obvious rule--is that -acquisitions are not thrown away when change occurs, but built upon, -utilized for some new function. The endostyle of the lowest chordates, -part of a very primitive type of feeding mechanism, was converted, -when they changed their mode of life, into the thyroid gland: the -parathyroids develop from the remains of the gill-apparatus when -gills are discarded for lungs: the secondary sexual differences which -originate as accidental consequence of the primary difference between -the sexes are, over and over again, elaborated into special characters -employed in courtship. - -So the sex-instinct and its associated emotion, at first simply one -among a number of separate and scarcely-correlated instincts, has in -man become the basis for numerous new mental functions. It can enter -into the composition of various emotions, though its character is often -disguised and its presence often undetected. It contributes to some of -the most exalted states of mind which we can experience. The sexual -relationship, which in lower animals involves neither contact nor even -propinquity, but simply simultaneous discharge of reproductive cells, -and in most animals is a purely temporary affair, is very different -in man. Even in those birds and non-human mammals in which the sexes -remain associated for long periods or permanently, the different -departments of life are more in water-tight compartments, the psychical -activity is subordinate to the physiological: in man the physiological -side, though of course still basic and necessary, is more--and can -be much more--subordinate to the psychological, and all parts of the -mental life interpenetrate to a much greater extent; so that the -sex-instinct may become transformed by a psychological process roughly -analogous to the transformation of physical energy, and reappear in -altered guise in various other activities of mind. - -If we look at the matter broadly, we see that man is in a period of -evolutionary transition as regards sex. We found previously that the -greatest change connected with sex which has been made in the evolution -of higher animals was the change by which there was evolved a brain -and mind with associated sense-organs in which accurate perception of -objects at a distance could occur, a mechanism which really dominated -the working of the organism as a whole, and in which memory and emotion -seemed to play an important part. Once this happened, the sex-instinct -could be linked up with general emotional reactions and connected with -external objects capable of inducing emotion. - -What was the result? That in every group possessing such a type of -mind, epigamic characters of a beautiful or striking or bizarre -nature were evolved. This first linking-up of sex with mind produced, -eventually, a large proportion of the beauty of the organic world. It -coloured and adorned not only many a bird, but even newts and fish -and spiders; it helped elicit song and music from mere sounds and -noises; it moulded our own bodies, coloured our lips and eyes, and -everywhere helped in adding grace to mere serviceableness; it saw to it -that, as St. Paul puts it, “even our uncomely parts have an abundant -comeliness.” But, as we have just pointed out, its connection with the -mind’s higher centres was in all pre-human forms still temporary, under -the control of cyclical physiological changes, and the mind as a whole -was still constructed in compartments, so that different instincts -and different experiences did not necessarily or even usually come in -contact with each other. - -The next great change is being made now; it concerns a further -development of mind and a consequent fresh mode of connection of sex -with mental life. As we have outlined above, this change in mind -consists in the tendency towards uniting the different parts of the -psyche, both those portions given by heredity and the modification due -to experience, into a single organic whole, and in making this whole -more dominant over the other aspects of the organism; the consequent -tendency as regards the relationship of sex to the organism is towards -taking it out of its single groove, its water-tight compartment, and -bringing it into more complete and more permanent union with the rest -of the mind. Furthermore, the main change and the consequent change as -regards sex are both of a biologically progressive nature. - -We are now, I think, owing to our taking this broad biological view, -in a better position to make up our minds as to some at least of the -difficulties which beset us to-day in any attempt to deal squarely -with the relation of sex to human life. It is true that some of -these difficulties are permanent. The synthesis of a unitary and -comprehensive mental organization can never be an easy task. The -child is endowed with a number of instinctive tendencies which, as -in animals, each tend whenever aroused to occupy the whole mental -field to the exclusion of all others, producing divergence and lack -of co-ordination instead of unity and organization. Then again, the -experience of any one individual may be highly unusual. For the child -to co-ordinate his various tendencies with each other and with his -own experience and with the tradition and experience of the race must -always be difficult, and there will always be some failures. - -There is another permanent difficulty, a biological disharmony, in the -fact that sexual maturity in man comes several years before general -maturity, and that again, at least in any state of civilization which -we can at present imagine as practicable, several years before the -economic possibility of marriage. There will always be crises of -adolescence; there will always be suffering and difficulty due to this -disharmony in time between the origin of the full sexual instinct and -the possibility of its proper satisfaction. - -However, granted these permanent difficulties, there are others which -may be reduced or made to disappear. Granted that we have to organize -our minds into a whole, we can see the general plan on which we -should aim at organizing it. We must aim first at having no barriers -between different parts of the mind. Every attempt must be made in -the education of children to prevent there being a stigma attached -to one whole section of mental life, and so to avoid its partial or -total dissociation from the rest. On the other hand, the absence of -barriers does not imply the absence of any relation of subordination or -dominance of one part to another. One of the most important biological -generalizations is that progressive evolution is accompanied by the -rise of one part to dominance and, whenever there are many parts to be -considered, by the arrangement of the rest in some form of hierarchy, -each part being subordinate to one above, dominant to one below. It -is such a hierarchy which we must try to construct in our mental -organization. - -It is obviously impossible here to go into the whole question of -values and ideals, but it is clear to any one who has given the -briefest reflection to the subject that there are certain values, -æsthetic, intellectual, and moral, which are ultimate for the mind of -man, certain ideals--of truth and honesty, intellectual satisfaction, -righteousness or at least freedom from the sense of sin or guilt, -completeness and self-realization, unselfishness and serviceableness -and so forth--which (though perhaps in varying proportions) are by -common consent accepted as the highest: and further that the greater -the attempt to deepen and broaden these, to increase their mental -intensity and to widen their range and association, the more they -tend to emerge into something increasingly unitary, in which it is -seen that honesty is also beautiful and useful, that intellectual -satisfaction is in the long run serviceable to the community, that -unselfishness to be effective requires thought and will besides mere -altruistic emotion, that one of the greatest aids to any genuine -righteousness is an æsthetic love of beautiful things that prevents our -doing ugly things, and so _ad infinitum_. - -The proper way, then, to build the sex instinct into the mental system -is not to have its stimulation cause a merely physiological and -uninhibited desire for its gratification, nor to bring about a forcible -repression and an attempt to break connection between it and the other -parts of the mind. - -The desirable method is to have free connection between it and the -dominant ideas, so that its stimulation brings about a stimulation of -them too. This leads, as a matter of experience, to the incorporation -of the sexual emotion in the dominant ideas, or we had better say an -interpenetration of one with the other, so that the sexual emotion is -no longer simply sexual emotion, but is become part of something very -much larger and very much better. Let the great writers say in their -few words what I should say much worse in many. - -Wordsworth’s “sense sublime of something far more deeply interfused” -opens a window on to the general process of sublimation: and Blake’s -description of the physical union of the sexes as “that ... on which -the soul expands her wing” is an epitome of a particular aspect of -our particular problem. Or again, when St. Paul says “Am I not free?” -or “All things are lawful unto me,” he means that by subordinating all -sides of himself to his highest ideals, he has reached that state in -which what he does is right to him because he only wants to do what -is right. (True that, as he himself confesses, he is not always able -to keep in that state: but when he is in it, he attains that complete -freedom which is the subordination of lower to higher desire.) - -Physiologically speaking, the activation of the sex instinct, when the -connection is made in this way, arouses the higher centres, and these -react upon the centres connected with the sex instinct, modifying their -mode of action. The nett result is thus that both act simultaneously -to produce a single whole of a new type. Processes of this nature -are common in the nervous system, as has been shown for instance by -Hughlings Jackson, Head, and Rivers.[39] - -Thus the higher, dominant parts of the mind are strengthened by their -connection with such lower parts as the simple sex instinct, and the -sex instinct is able to play a rôle in any operation of the mind, -however exalted, in which emotion is in any way concerned. Rivers -believes that the actual conflict between controlled and controlling -parts of the mind is a potent generator of mental “energy”; and adds, -“whatever be the source of the energy, however, we can be confident -that by the process of sublimation the lives upon which it is expended -take a special course, and in such case it is not easy to place any -limit to its activity. We do not know how high the goal that it may -reach.”[40] - -The change is thus on the one side from the relative independence of -the sex instinct towards its subordination to a position in a hierarchy -of mental process, but on the other from a rigid limitation of its -scope towards a greater universality by establishing connections with -all other parts of the mind. Further, there is also a change towards -greater dominance and “self-determination” of the mental as against the -physical. - -A great many of the difficulties which beset us, both as individuals -and as communities, come from the fact that both these changes are only -in process of being made, and are (even approximately) complete only in -a very small number of persons. - -Lack of restraint is failure to construct a properly-working hierarchy. -That is a very simple example. Less easy to analyse but equally -vicious, are the innumerable cases in which some sort of equilibrium -is only attained not by a free interaction of dominant and subordinate -parts, but by repression. Conflicts arise, which persist, either in an -open form or in the subterranean regions of the unconscious. In either -case they tend to be projected by the subject into his ideas of other -people. This projection, or interpretation of external reality in terms -of one’s self, is a curious and almost universal attribute of the -human mind. The most familiar example is perhaps the anthropomorphism -which in religion after religion has invested the powers of the -universe with human form, human mental process, human personality--or -at least with form, mind, and personality similar to those of man; -while a very simple case is that in which certain neurotic types -project their depression so as to colour everything that comes into -their cognizance a gloomy black. - -In the sphere of sex this process is, alas, most potently at work. The -man in whom the sexual instinct still lives a more or less independent, -uninhibited life of its own, tends--unless he has special evidence to -the contrary, and often even then--to interpret the behaviour and the -minds of others in the terms familiar to himself, and to suppose that -they too must be stopped by the fear of punishment or of loss of caste -if they are not to commit excesses. - -On the other hand, those in whom there is a constant conflict with a -sexual origin project it here, there, and everywhere into the breasts -of those they know, and interpret others’ motives in terms of their own -repressed wishes. - -Furthermore, most of our existing laws and customs are based on a -state of society in which the changes to which we have referred had -not progressed as far as they have to-day, and man’s psychology was a -little less removed from that of other mammals. - -The result is that those who attempt the complete emancipation -possible to a properly-organized mind are confronted first by the lag -of our institutions and traditions, and secondly by the unconcealed -suspicion of all those--and they are as yet the large majority--in -which the conflicts arising out of sex are unresolved. It is from the -sum of those conflicts that the spirit prevalent with regard to sex -to-day derives its character--shocked and shamefaced as regards one’s -own sexual life, vindictive and grudging as regards the difficulties -of others. The bulk of men and women cannot treat sexual problems in a -scientific spirit, because of the store of bottled-up emotion in the -wrong place that they have laid up for themselves by their failure to -come to proper terms with their sexual instincts. The soul should grow -to deserve the words Crashaw wrote of St. Theresa--“O thou undaunted -daughter of desires!” But this the soul of such disharmonic beings can -never do. - -This brings us to our other pressing question. Should the results -of psycho-analytic methods, the knowledge that the sex instinct is -fundamental and is interwoven into the roots of the highest spiritual -activities--should the inculcation and demonstration of this be part -of education? Some would say yes, and would argue that to know oneself -is essential to a proper realization of one’s capacities. Personally I -am extremely doubtful of the correctness of this answer. Knowledge of -the processes of digestion is not necessary to digest well--so long as -we go on digesting well: it is only necessary when we digest badly. In -that case the processes involved are automatic: but even in processes -which require a great deal of learning, we find a similar state of -affairs. A man can become expert at, say, a game requiring the most -delicate adjustments of hand and eye without analysing the processes -he employs, but by practising them as finished articles, so to speak; -and it is equally obvious that Shakespeare and Shelley and Blake and -other great writers produced their works without the least analytical -knowledge of the obscure and rather unpleasant processes which, if we -are to believe the critics who psycho-analyse dead authors in the pages -of Freudian journals, were “really” at work below the surface. Analysis -constitutes a serious surgical operation for the mind, and, as one of -the leading Austrian psycho-analysts has recently said, we do not want -to perform this operation on healthy people any more than we want to -open their abdomens merely for the sake of seeing that their viscera -are normal. - -If matters concerning sex are treated properly during a child’s -development and education, the necessity for psycho-analysis and any -extension of analytic knowledge of the foundations of one’s own mind -that it may bring is done away with. If it can be ensured that there -is no obvious avoidance of the subject leading to repression in the -child’s mind, and on the other hand no undue prominence given to it so -that a morbid curiosity is aroused, a large proportion of the conflicts -that now arise could be avoided. The other necessity is that there -should be provision for sublimation--in art or music, in social service -or in one’s own work, in religion, or, in modified form, in sport or -romance. - -It is perfectly possible, in such case, for mental development to -proceed naturally and comparatively smoothly towards a unified -organization of the type of which we have spoken. Psycho-analysis -would not help a boy or girl developing in such a way, any more than -would a study of all the characters we have inherited from our simian -forefathers help us to realize our specifically human possibilities. On -the other hand, when the intellectual desire to know things for their -own sake is aroused, as it is in most boys and girls between the ages -of about fourteen and twenty, then just as it is good, in order to -get a true picture of the universe, for them to know and be presented -with the evidence for man’s evolution from lower forms, so it is good -for the same reason to give them an account of their psychological -organization, including evidence for the rôle which sex plays in the -genesis of higher mental activities--without, however, any necessity -for psychological experiments in burrowing into their own foundations. -In this case such knowledge would have the additional value of putting -them on their guard against allowing themselves to be prejudiced by -their own incompletely-adjusted conflicts. - -We are all of us too prone to think that a phenomenon is somehow -“explained,” or interpreted better, by analysing it into its component -parts or discovering its origin than by studying it in and for itself. - -The new type of mental organization acquired by man permits of wholly -new types of mental process, of a complexity as far exceeding those -that we deduce in brutes as does the physical organism of a dog or an -ant that of a polyp or a protozoan: and it is part of our business to -realize those possibilities to the fullest extent. - -To sum up, then, biological investigation in the first place shows -us how certain abnormalities of sexual psychology may be more easily -interpreted as caused by comparatively simple physical abnormalities -than by the more complex distortions of psychological origin dealt -with by psycho-analysis. In the second place, by giving us a broader -_aperçu_ than can otherwise be gained over the evolution of sex -and the direction visible in biological history, it clears up to a -certain extent some of the difficulties which the discoveries of the -psycho-analytic school have rendered acute. - -If the changes in the relation of the sex instinct to the rest of the -mind, which I have spoken of above as being in operation at present, -should one day progress so far as to be more or less carried through -in a majority, or in a dominant section of the population, the whole -outlook of society towards the sex problem would be changed, and -the laws and institutions and customs connected with it completely -remodelled. - -The most pressing task of those who are thinking over the problem of -sex in human life will often be the relief of suffering and the removal -of abuses: but the broader view should never be forgotten, and every -attempt should be made to think constructively with a view to realizing -the enormous possibilities that such a change would bring about. - - -BIBLIOGRAPHY - - Blair Bell, ’16. “The Sex Complex.” London, 1916. - - Carr-Saunders, ’22. “The Population Problem.” Oxford, 1922. - - Crew, ’23. Proc. Roy. Soc. (B.). London, 1923. - - Cunningham, J. T., ’00. “Sexual Dimorphism in the Animal Kingdom.” - London, 1900. - - Doncaster, L., ’14. “The Determination of Sex.” Cambridge, 1914. - - East and Jones, ’19. “Inbreeding and Outbreeding.” Philadelphia, - 1919. - - Ellis, Havelock, ’10. “Studies in the Psychology of Sex.” - Philadelphia, 1910. - - Freud. “The Psychology of the Unconscious.” - - Goldschmidt, R., ’23. “The Mechanism and Physiology of - Sex-Determination.” London, 1923. - - Harrow, B., ’23. “Glands in Health and Disease.” London, 1923. - - Howard, E., ’20. “Territory in Bird Life.” London, 1920. - - Huxley, ’14. (Reversed Pairing, Grebe) Proc. Zool. Soc. London, - 1914. - - Huxley, ’23. (Courtship and Display) Proc. Linnean Soc. London, - 1923. - - Jung, ’20. “Analytical Psychology.” London, 1920. - - Lipschütz, ’19. “Die Pubertätsdrüse.” Bern, 1919. - - Marshall, ’23. “The Physiology of Reproduction.” (2nd Ed.). - Cambridge, 1923. - - Meisenheimer, J., ’21. “Geschlecht und Geschlechter.” Jena, 1921. - - Morgan, ’19. “The Physical Basis of Heredity.” Philadelphia, 1919. - - Rivers, ’20. “Instinct and the Unconscious.” Cambridge, 1920. - - Selous, E., ’20. (Moorhen) _Zoologist_ [4] 6. London, 1902. - - Steinach J., ’20. Verjüngung, Leipzig, 1920. - - Stopes, Marie. “Married Love.” - - Tansley, ’20. “The New Psychology.” London, 1920. - - Vincent, Swale, ’21. “Internal Secretion and the Ductless Gland.” - (2nd Ed.). London, 1921. - - Voronoff, S., ’23. “Greffes Testiculaires.” Paris, 1923. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[27] Read before the British Society for Sex Psychology, October 1922. - -[28] See East and Jones, ’19. - -[29] See Huxley, ’23. - -[30] See Howard, ’20; Carr-Saunders, ’22. - -[31] See Goldschmidt, ’23; Morgan, ’19; Doncaster, ’14. - -[32] See Steinach, ’20; summary in Lipschütz, ’19; Voronoff, ’23. - -[33] See Carr-Saunders, ’22, ch. v, and M. Stopes. - -[34] See Lipschütz, ’19; Goldschmidt, ’23. - -[35] See Selous, ’02; Huxley, 14. - -[36] See Blair Bell, ’16. - -[37] See Vincent, ’21; Harrow, ’23. - -[38] Crew, ’23. - -[39] See Rivers, ’20, chs. iv, xviii. - -[40] Rivers, ’20, p. 158. - - - - -V - -PHILOSOPHIC ANTS: - -A BIOLOGIC FANTASY - - - PHILOSOPHIC----ANTS? - - Amœba has her picture in the book, - Proud Protozoon!--Yet beware of pride. - All she can do is fatten and divide; - She cannot even read, or sew, or cook.... - - The Worm can crawl--but has no eyes to look: - The Jelly-fish can swim--but lacks a bride: - The Fly’s a very Ass personified: - And speech is absent even from the Rook. - - The Ant herself cannot philosophize-- - While Man does that, and sees, and keeps a wife, - And flies, and talks, and is extremely wise.... - Will our Philosophy to later Life - Seem but a crudeness of the planet’s youth, - Our Wisdom but a parasite of Truth? - - - - -PHILOSOPHIC ANTS: - -A BIOLOGIC FANTASY[41] - - - “Incomprehensibility; that’s what I say.”--LEWIS CARROLL - (_amended_). - - -According to a recent study by Mr. Shapley (Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., -Philadelphia, vol. vi, p. 204), the normal rate of progression of -ants--or at least of the species of ant which he studied--is a function -of temperature. For each rise of ten degrees centigrade, the ants go -about double as fast. So complete is the dependence that the ants may -be employed as a thermometer, measurement of their rate of locomotion -giving the temperature to within one degree centigrade. - - * * * * * * * - -The simple consequence--easy of apprehension by us, but infinite -puzzlement to ants--is that on a warm day an ant will get through a -task four or five times as heavy as she will on a cold one. She does -more, thinks more, lives more: more Bergsonian duration is hers. - -There was a time, we learn in the myrmecine annals, when ants were -simple unsophisticated folk, barely emerged from entomological -barbarism. Some stayed at home to look after the young brood and tend -the houses, others went afield to forage. It was not long before they -discovered that the days differed in length. At one season of the year -they found the days insufferably long; they must rest five or six times -if they were, by continuing work while light lasted, to satisfy their -fabulous instinct for toil. At the opposite season, they needed no -rest at all, for they only carried through a fifth of the work. This -irregularity vexed them: and what is more, time varied from day to day, -and this hindered them in the accurate execution of any plans. - -But as the foragers talked with the household servants, and with those -of their own number who through illness or accident were forced to stay -indoors, they discovered that the home-stayers noticed a much slighter -difference in time between the seasons. - -It is easy for us to see this as due to the simple fact that the -temperature of the nest varies less, summer and winter, than does that -of the outer air: but it was a hard nut for them, and there was much -head-scratching. It was of course made extremely difficult by the fact -that they were not sensitive to gradual changes in temperature as such, -the change being as it were taken up in the altered rate of living. -But as their processes of thought kept pace in alteration with their -movements, they found it simplest and most natural to believe in the -fixity and uniformity of their own life and its processes, and to refer -all changes to the already obvious mutability of external nature. - -The Wise Ants were summoned: they were ordered by the Queen to -investigate the matter; and so, after consultation, decided to apply -the test of experiment. Several of their numbers, at stated intervals -throughout the year, stayed in and went out on alternate days, -performing identical tasks on the two occasions. The task was the -repeated recitation of the most efficacious of the myrmecine sacred -formulæ. - -The rough-and-ready calculations of the workers were speedily -corroborated. “Great is God, and we are the people of God” could be -recited out-of-doors some twenty thousand times a day in summer, less -than four thousand times in winter; while the corresponding indoor -figures were about fifteen thousand and six thousand. - -There was the fact; now for the explanation. After many conclaves, -a most ingenious hypothesis was put forward, which found universal -credence. Let me give it in an elegant and logical form. - - - (1) It was well-known--indeed self-evident--that the Ant race was - the offspring and special care of the Power who made and ruled the - universe. - - (1.1) Therefore a great deal of the virtue and essence of that - Power inhered in the race of Ants. Ants, indeed, were made in the - image of God. - - (1.2) It was, alas, common knowledge that this Power, although - Omnipotent and Omniscient, was confronted by another power, the - power of disorder, of irregularity, who prevented tasks, put - temptations in the way of workers, and was in fact the genius of - Evil. - - (2) Further, it was a received tradition among them that there had - been a fall from the grace of a Golden Age, when there were no - neuters, but all enjoyed married bliss; and the ant-cows gave milk - and honey from their teats. - - (2.1) And that this was forfeited by a crime (unmentionable, I - regret to say, in modern society) on the part of a certain Queen - of Ants in the distant past. The Golden Age was gone; the poor - neuters--obligate spinsters--were brought into being; work became - the order of the day. Ant-lions with flaming jaws were set round - that kingdom of Golden Age, from which all ants were thenceforth - expelled. - - (2.2.1) This being so, it was natural to conclude that the fall - from grace involved a certain loss of divine qualities. - - (2.2.2) The general conclusion to be drawn was that in the race - of ants there still resided a certain quantity of these virtues - that give regularity to things and events; although not sufficient - wholly to counter-balance the machinations of the power of evil - and disorder. - - (2.2.3) That where a number of ants had their home and were - congregated together, there the virtue resided in larger bulk and - with greater effect, but that abroad, where ants were scattered - and away from hearth, home, and altar, the demon of irregularity - exerted greater sway. - - -This doctrine held the field for centuries. - - * * * * * * * - -But at last a philosopher arose. He was not satisfied with the current -explanation, although this had been held for so long that it had -acquired the odour and force of a religious dogma. He decided to put -the matter to the test. He took a pupa (_anglice_ “ant’s egg”) and on a -windless day suspended it from a twig outside the nest. There he had it -swung back and forth, counting its swings. He then (having previously -obtained permission from the Royal Sacerdotal College) suspended the -pupa by the same length of thread from the roof of the largest chamber -of the nest--a dome devoted to spiritual exercise--and repeated the -swinging and the counting. The living pendulum-bob achieved the same -daily number of oscillations inside the nest as outside, although it -was full summer, and the foragers found the day quite twice as long -as did the home-stayers. The trial was repeated with another pupa and -other lengths of thread; the result was always the same. - -It was then that he laid the foundations of ant science by his bold -pronouncement that neither the combat of spiritual powers nor the -expansion or contraction of the store of divine grace had anything to -do with the strange alteration of diurnal length; but that the cause of -it lay in the Ants themselves, who varied with the varying of something -for which he invented the word _Temperature_, not in a contraction or -expansion of Time. - -This he announced in public, thinking that a tested truth must be -well-received, and would of necessity some day prove useful to society. -But the consequence was a storm of protest, horror, and execration. - -Did this impious creature think to overthrow the holy traditions with -impunity? Did he not realize that to impugn one sentence, one word, -one letter of the Sacred Books was to subvert the whole? Did he think -that a coarse, simple, verifiable experiment was to weigh against the -eternal verity of subtle and mysterious Revelation? No! and again a -thousand times No!! - -He was brought before the Wise Ants, and cross-questioned by them. It -was finally decided that he was to abjure his heretical opinion and to -recant in public, reciting aloud to the four winds of heaven: “the Ant -is the norm of all”-- - - - Μὑρμηξ παντὁς νὁμος. - - -He said it. But Truth stirred within him, and under his breath he -muttered “Eppur si muove....” This was overheard, and he was condemned -(loneliness being much hated and dreaded by ants) to a solitary -banishment. - -Later philosophers, however, by using this same pendulum method, were -enabled to find that the movements of sap in plants differed in rate -according to the length of day, and later discovered that the expansion -of water in hollow stems also followed these changes. By devising -machines for registering these movements, they were enabled to prophesy -with considerable success the amount of work to be got through on a -given day, and so to render great aid to the smooth working of the body -politic. Thus, gradually, the old ideas fell into desuetude among the -educated classes--which, however, did not prevent the common people -from remaining less than half-convinced and from regarding the men of -science with suspicion and disapproval. - - * * * * * * * - -We happen to be warm-blooded--to have had the particular problem -faced by our philosophic ants solved for us during the passage of -evolutionary time, not by any taking of thought on our part or on -the part of our ancestors, but by the casual processes of variation -and natural selection. But a succession of similar problems presses -upon us. Relativity is in the air; it is so much in the air that it -becomes almost stifling at times; but even so, its sphere so far has -been the inorganic sciences, and biological relativity, though equally -important, has been little mentioned. - -We have all heard the definition of life as “one damn thing after -another”; it would perhaps be more accurate to substitute some term -such as _relatedness_ for _thing_. - -When I was a small boy, my mother wrote down in a little book a number -of my infant doings and childish sayings, the perusal of which I find -an admirable corrective to any excessive moral or intellectual conceit. -What, for instance, is to be thought of a scientist of whom the -following incident is recorded, even if the record refers to the age of -four years? - -I (for convenience one must assign the same identity to oneself at -different ages, although again it is but a relative sameness that -persists)--I had made some particularly outrageous statement which was -easily proved false: to which proof, apparently without compunction, I -answered, “Oh, well, I always ex_agg_-erate when it’s a fine day....” - -The converse of this I came across recently in a solemn treatise of -psychology: a small girl of five or six, in the course of an “essay” in -school, affirmed that the sun was shining and the day was fine; while -as a matter of fact it had been continuously overcast and gloomy: on -being pressed for a reason, she explained that she felt so happy that -particular morning that she had been sure it was a fine day. - -If the weather can affect one’s statements of fact, and one’s emotions -can affect the apparent course of meteorological events, where is -the line to be drawn? What is real? The only things of which we have -immediate cognizance are, of course, happenings in our minds: and the -precise nature and quality of each of these happenings depends on two -things--on the constitution and state of our mind and its train on the -one hand; on the other hand upon events or relations between events -outside that system. That sounds very grand; but all it means after all -is that you need a cause to produce an effect, a machine to register as -well as a something to be registered. - -As further consequence, since this particular machine (if I may be -permitted to use the odious word in a purely metaphorical sense), -this mind of ours, is never the same for two succeeding instants, but -continually varies both in the quantity of its activity and the quality -of its state, it follows that variations in mental happenings depend -very largely on variations in the machine that registers, not by any -means solely upon variations in what is to be registered. - -Few (at least among Englishmen) would dispute the thesis that food, -properly cooked and served, and of course adapted to the hour, is -attractive four times in the day. But to a large proportion among -us, even sausages and marmalade at nine, or roast beef and potatoes -on a Sabbath noon, would prove not only not attractive but positively -repellent if offered us on a small steamer on a rough day. I will not -labour the point. - -We all know how the size of sums of money appears to vary in a -remarkable way according as they are being paid in or paid out. We -all know to our cost the extraordinary superiority of the epochs when -our more elderly relatives were youthful. The fact remains that we -are always prone to regard the registering machine as a constant, -and to believe that all the variation comes from outside. It is easy -to discount the inner variation in ourselves when we are seasick, or -in others when they are old and reminiscent, but not only is this -discounting sometimes far more difficult, it is sometimes not even -attempted. - -What, for instance, are we to say to those who profess to find a -harmony in the universe, those to whom poverty and discomfort and -hard work appear the merest accidents, to whom even disease, pain, -loss, death, and disaster are “somehow good”? You and I would probably -retort that we have a rooted dislike to discomfort, that we should most -strongly deny that the loss of a friend or even of a leg was anything -but bad, that a toothache was not damnably unpleasant. But I think that -if they were philosophically inclined (which they probably would not -be), they might justifiably retort that the difference between their -universe and ours was due to a difference in their mental machinery, -which they had succeeded in adjusting so that it registered in a -different and a better way. - -It is at least clear that something of the sort can happen in the -intellectual sphere. To the uneducated, the totality of things, if ever -reflected upon, is a compound of fog and chaos: advance is painfully -slow, and interlarded with unpleasant falls into pits and holes of -illogicality and inconsequence; to those who have taken the trouble to -push on, however, an orderly system at last reveals itself. - -The problem of the origin and relationship of species gave such mental -distress to those zoologists of the first half of the nineteenth -century who were conscientious enough to struggle with it, that -many of them ended by a mental suppression of the problem and a -refusal to discuss it further. The publication of Darwin’s _Origin -of Species_ was to them what psycho-analysis is (or may be) to a -patient with a repressed complex. Or again, no one can read accounts -of the physicists’ recent work on the structure of the atom without -experiencing an extraordinary feeling of satisfaction. Instead of -wallowing in unrelated facts, we fly on wings of principle; not only -can we better cut our way through the jungle of things, but we are -allowed a privilege that has universally been considered one of the -attributes of Gods--the calm and untroubled understanding of things and -processes. - - - “The Gods are happy. - They turn on all sides - Their shining eyes, - And see below them - The earth and men.” - - -This being so, what is to prevent us from believing that, once certain -adjustments are made in the mental sausage-machine, we shall discover -that what we once found impossibly tough meat will pass smoothly -through and become done up into the most satisfactory of sausages? -In other words, that the values are there if we choose to make -them--an Euckenish doctrine which, for all that it arouses instinctive -suspicion, may none the less be true. - -But even when we have made all possible discounts of this kind, evolved -the smoothest-running machinery, converted the raw and meaty material -of being into every conceivable kind of tidy sausage, the fact remains -that there are feats beyond the power of our machine--beyond its power -because of the very quality of its being. - -We live at a certain rhythm in time, at a certain level of size and -space; beyond certain limits, events in the outer world are not -directly appreciable by the ordinary channels of sense, although a -symbolic picture of them may be presented to us by the intellect. - -When we are listening to the organ, sometimes there come notes which -are on the border-line between sound and feeling: their separate -vibrations are distinguishable and pulse through us, and the more the -vibrations are separable, the more they are felt as mechanical shocks, -the less as sound. However, we know perfectly well that all sounds as -a matter of fact depend on vibratory disturbance, and that it is only -some peculiarity of the registering machinery, in ear or brain, which -enables us to hear a note as continuous. - -Still more remarkable are the facts of vision. As I write I see -the tulips in my garden, red against the green grass: the red is a -continuous sensation; but the physicists appear to be justified in -telling us that the eye is being bombarded every second with a series -of waves, not the few hundred or thousand that give us sound, but the -half-billion or so which conspire to illuminate our vision. - -With sound, we alter the frequency of the waves and we get a difference -of tone which seems to be merely a difference of more or less: but -alter the frequency of light-waves, and the whole quality of the -sensation changes, as when I look from the tulips to the sky. The -change of registering mechanism is here more profound than the change -in outer event. - -Or again, to choose an example that depends more on size than rhythm, -how very difficult it is to remember that the pressure of air on our -bodies is not the uniform gentle embrace of some homogeneous substance, -but the bombardment of an infinity of particles. The particles are not -even all alike: some are of oxygen, others of nitrogen, of carbonic -acid gas, of water vapour. They are not all travelling at uniform -speeds; collisions are all the time occurring, and the molecules are -continuously changing their rate of travel as they clash and bump. - -We have only to look down a microscope to convince ourselves of the -alteration in our experience that it would mean if we were to become -sufficiently diminished. The tiniest solid particles in fluids can -be seen to be in a continuous state of agitation--inexplicable until -it was pointed out that this mysterious “Brownian” movement was the -inevitable result of impacts by the faster-moving molecules of the -fluid. Many living things that we can still see are small enough to -live permanently in such agitation; the longest diameter of many -bacteria is but half a micron (a two-thousandth of a millimetre), and -there are many ultra-microscopic organisms which, owing to their closer -approximation to molecular dimensions, must pass their lives in erratic -excursions many times more violent than any visible Brownian motion. - -If we could shrink, like Alice, at the persuasion of some magic -mushroom, the rain of particles on our skin, now as unfelt as midges -by a rhinoceros, would at last begin to be perceptible. We should -find ourselves surrounded by an infinity of motes; titillated by -a dance of sand-grains; bruised by a rain of marbles; pounded by -flights of fives-balls. What is more, the smaller we became, the -more individuality and apparent free-will should we detect in the -surrounding particles. As we got still smaller, we should, now and -again, find the nearly uniform bombardment replaced by a concerted -attack on one side or the other, and we should be hurled for perhaps -double our own length in one direction. If we could conceivably enter -into a single inorganic molecule, we should find ourselves one of a -moving host of similar objects: and we should further perceive that -these objects were themselves complex, some like double stars, others -star-clusters, others single suns, and all again built of lesser units -held in a definite plan, in an architecture reminding us (if we still -had memory) of a solar system _in petto_. If we were lucky enough -to be in a complicated fluid like seawater, we should be intrigued -by the relations of the different kinds of particles. They would be -continually coming up to other particles of different kinds, and would -then sometimes enter into intimate union with them. If we could manage -to follow their history, we should find that after a time they would -separate, and seek new partners, of the same or of different species. -Some kinds of the units, or people as we should be inclined to call -them, would spend most of their existence in the married state, others -would apparently prefer to remain single, or, if they married, would -within no long time obtain divorce. - -We should be forcibly reminded of life in some cosmopolitan city like -London or New York. If there existed a registrar to note down the -events of these little beings’ existence, and we were privileged to -inspect the register, we should find that each had its own history, -different from that of every other in its course and its matrimonial -adventures. - -If we were near the surface we should find that the outer beings always -arranged themselves in a special and coherent layer, apparently to -protect themselves against the machinations of the different beings -inhabiting the region beyond; for every now and again one would seem -to be pulled from the water and be lost among the more scattered -inhabitants of the air. - -If we could now revert to our old size, we might remember, as we -listened to the scientist enunciating the simple formulæ of the -gas-laws, or giving numerical expression to vapour-pressures and -solubilities, that this simplicity and order which he enabled us to -find in inorganic nature was only simplicity when viewed on a large -enough scale, and that it was needful to deal in millions and billions -before chance aberrations faded into insignificance, needful to -experience molecules from the standpoint of a unit almost infinitely -bigger before individual behaviour could be neglected and merged in the -orderly average. And we might be tempted to wonder how the personal -idiosyncrasies of our human units might appear to a being as much -larger than we as we are larger than a molecule--whether kings and -beggars would not fare alike, and all the separate, striving, feeling, -conflicting personalities, with their individual histories, their -ancestors, successes, marriages, friendships, pains, and pleasures, be -merged in some homogeneous and simple effect, altering in response to -circumstances, with changes capable of expression in some formula as -simple as Boyle’s or Avogadro’s Law. - -Almost more startling might be the effect of altering the rhythm at -which we live, or rather at which we experience events. - -If only I were Mr. H. G. Wells, I could make a mint of money by a story -based on this idea of rhythm of living.[42] Let us see.... First there -would be Mercaptan the distinguished inventor, who would lead me (lay, -uninstructed, Watsonish me, after the fashion of narrators) into his -laboratory. There on the table would be the machine--all but complete: -handles, coils of wire, quartz terminals, gauges of rock-crystal in -which oscillated coloured fluids, platinum cogwheels ... dot ... dot -... dot ... dot.... He hardly dared to make the final connections, all -clear and calculable though they were. He had put so much of himself -into it: so many hopes ... fears ... dots.... - -Then there would be the farewell dinner-party--first the inventor’s -voice on the wireless telephone, summoning Wagrom the explorer, Glosh -of the _Evening Post_, Stewartson Ampill the novelist, and the rest -of our old friends: then the warm friendly light of the candles, the -excellent port, the absence of women, the reminiscences, the asterisks, -the.... - -Mercaptan refuses to allow the rest to come into the laboratory, in -case something should go wrong. He straps the machine on his shoulders, -makes a final connection; his life processes begin to work faster, -faster, ever faster. The first effect of course was a change of colour. -The blue oblong of the window became green--yellow--orange--red. -Meanwhile each wave-length of the ultra-violet became blue, and itself -ran down the gamut of colour. Then came the turn of the X-rays--by -their dim light he groped about, till they too became relatively too -slow for his retina. That ought to make him blind, of course--but no! -Mr. Wells had thought that all out; and he came into a state of nearly -maximum speed where he perceived a brilliant, phosphorescent light -given out by all objects, generated by disturbances of a wave-length -unimaginably, undiscoverably small. Meanwhile he had passed through an -amazing experience--he had heard the veritable music of the spheres! -That had happened when in his acceleration he had, so to speak, caught -up with the light-waves, until they were tuned to his ear’s organ of -Corti: and all that had been visible in his ordinary life was now to be -appreciated by hearing. Unfortunately, as his ears possessed no lens, -this universal music was to him of course merely a hideous babel of -sound. - -At last, as the workings of his body approached the rapidity of light’s -own oscillations, he entered on a new phase--surrounded on every side -by an ocean of waves which lapped softly against his body--waves, -waves, and still more waves.... - -He was in that region not unlike that from which life has escaped when -it ceased to be infinitely little, a region in which none of the events -that make up our ordinary life, none of the bodies that are our normal -environment, have existence any more--all reduced to a chaos of billows -ceaselessly and meaninglessly buffeting his being. - -“Mi ritrovai in una selva oscura.” - -Life is a wood, dark and trackless enough to be sure; but Mercaptan -could not even see that it was a wood--for the trees. - -Yet it was soothing: the very meaninglessness of the wave-rocking -released one of responsibility, and it was delicious to float upon this -strange etheric sea. - -Then his scientific mind reasserted itself. He realized that he had -magnified his rate of life and was consuming his precious days at an -appalling speed. The lever was thrown into reverse, and he passed -gradually back to what he had been accustomed to think of as reality. - -Back to it; and then beyond it, slowing his vital rhythm. This time -he was able by an ingenious arrangement to eliminate much of the -disturbing effect of his rhythm-change on his vision. It was an idea -of which he was very proud: every alternate light-wave was cut out when -he doubled the capacity of each process of life, and so on in automatic -correspondence. As a result he was enabled to get a picture of the -outer world very similar to that obtained in the ordinary accelerations -of slow processes that are made possible by running slow-taken cinema -records at high speed. He saw the snowdrops lift their matutinal heads -and drop them again at evening--an instant later; the spring was an -alarming burst of living energy, the trees’ budding and growth of -leaves became a portent, like the bristling of hairs on the backs of -vegetable cats. As his rate changed and he comprehended more and more -in each pulse, the flowers faded and fell before he could think of -plucking them, autumnal apples rotted in his grasp, day was a flash -and night a wink of the eye, the two blending at last in a continuous -half-light. - -After a time ordinary objects ceased to be distinguishable; then the -seasons shared the fate of day and night. The lever was now nearly hard -over, and the machine was reaching its limits. He was covering nearly a -thousand of men’s years with each of his own seconds. - -The cinema effect was almost useless to him now; and he discarded this -apparatus. Now followed what he had so eagerly awaited, something -deducible in general but unpredictable in all particulars. As the -repeated separate impacts of the ether waves had condensed, at his old -ordinary rate, to form the continuous sensation of light, so now the -events of nature coalesced to give new objects, new kinds of sensation. -Especially was this so with life: the repeated generations seemed to -act like separate repeated waves of light, blending to give a picture -of the species changing and evolving before his eyes. - -Other experiences he could explain less well. He was conscious of -strange sensations that he thought were probably associated with -changes in energy-distribution, in entropy; others which he seemed to -perceive directly, by some form of telepathy, concerning the type of -mental process occurring around him. It was all strange: but of one -thing he was sure--that if only he could find a way of nourishing and -maintaining himself in this new state, he would be able, as a child -does in the first few years of life, to correlate his puzzling new -sensations, and that when he had done this he would obtain a different -and more direct view of reality than any he had ever obtained or -thought of obtaining before. - -As the individual light-waves were summed to give light, as the -microcosm of gas-molecules cancelled out to give a uniformity of -pressure, so now the repetition of the years coalesced into what could -be described as visible time, a sensation of cosmic rate; the repeated -pullulations of living things fused into something perceived as organic -achievement: and the infinite variety of organisms, their conflicts -and interactions, resolved itself, through the mediation of his -sense-organs and brain at their new rhythm, into a direct perception of -life as a whole, an entity with a pressure on its environment, a single -slowly-evolving form, a motion and direction. - -He put the lever to its limit: the rhythm of the cosmos altered again -in relation to his own. He had an extraordinary sense of being on the -verge of a revelation. The universe--that was the same; but what he -experienced of it was totally different. He had immediate experience -of the waxing and waning of suns, of the condensation of nebulæ, the -slowing down and speeding up of evolutionary processes. - -The curious, apparently telepathic sense which he had had of the -mental side of existence was intensified. Through it, the world began -to be perceived as a single Being, with all its parts in interaction. -The shadowy lineaments of this being were half seen by his mental -vision--vast, colossal, slowly changing; but they appeared only to -disappear again, like a picture in the fire. - -Strive as he might, he could not see its real likeness. Now it appeared -benign; at its next dim reappearance there would be a feeling of -capricious irresponsibility about it: at another instant it was cold, -remote; once or twice terrible, impending over and filling everything -with a black demoniacal power which brought only horror with it. - -If he could but accelerate the machine! He wanted to _know_--to know -whether this phantom were a reality, to know above all if it were a -thing of evil or of good: and he could not know unless he could advance -that last final step necessary to fuse the rhythm of separate events -into the sensation of the single whole. - -He sat straining all his faculties: the machine whirred and rocked: but -in vain. And at last, feeling desperately hungry, for he had forgotten -to take food with him, he gradually brought back the lever to its -neutral-point. - - * * * * * * * - -Of course, Mr. Wells would have done it much better than this. - - * * * * * * * - -And then there would have to be an ending. I think the newspaper man -would take his opportunity to slink off into the laboratory and get on -the machine with the idea of making a scoop for his paper; ... and then -he would put the lever in too violently, and be thrown backwards. His -head hit the corner of a bench, and he remained stunned; but by evil -chance, the handles of the machine still made connection with his body -after the fall. The machine was making him adjust his rhythm to that of -light; so that he was living at an appalling rate. He had gone into the -laboratory late at night. Next morning they found him--dead: and dead -of senile decay--grey-haired, shrivelled, atrophic. - -Then of course the machine is smashed up; and Mr. Wells begins to write -another book. - - * * * * * * * - -I have spent so much time in frivolous discussion of rhythm and size -and commonplaces that I have not pointed out another fundamental fact -of biological relativity--to wit, that we are but parochial creatures -endowed only with sense-organs giving information about the agencies -normally found in our own little environment. Mind without the objects -of mind is the very Chimaera bombinating _in vacuo_. - -Out of all the ether waves we are sensitive to an octave as light, and -some few others as heat. X-rays and ultra-violet destroy us, but we -know nothing about them until they begin to give us pain; while the low -swell of Hertzian waves passes by and through us harmless and unheeded. -Electrical sense again we have none. - -Imagine what it would be for inhabitants of another planet where -changes in Hertzian waves were the central, pivotal changes in -environment, where accordingly life had become sensitive to “wireless” -and to nought else save perhaps touch--imagine such beings broadcast -upon the face of the Earth. With a little practice and ingenuity they -would no doubt be able to decipher the messages floating through -our atmosphere, would feel the rhythms of the Black Hamitic Band -transmitting Jazz to a million homes, and be able to follow, night by -night, the soporific but benevolent fairy-stories of Uncle Archibald. -I wonder what they would make of it all. They would at intervals, -of course, be bumping into things and people. But would touch and -radio-sense alone make our world intelligible? I wonder.... - -When we begin trying to quit our anthropocentry and discover what the -world might be like if only we had other organs of body and mind for -its assaying, we must flounder and bump in a not dissimilar fashion. - -Even the few senses that we do possess are determined by our -environment. Sweet things are pleasant to us: sugar is sweet: so is -“sugar of lead”--lead acetate; sugar is nutritious, lead acetate a -poison. The biologist will conclude, and with perfect reason, that if -sugar was as rare as lead acetate in nature, lead acetate as common as -sugar, we should then abominate and reject sweet things as emphatically -as we now do filth or acids or over-hot liquids. - -But I must pause, and find a moral for my tale; for all will agree that -a moral has been so long out of fashion that it is now fast becoming -fashionable again. - -Every schoolboy, as Macaulay would say, knows William of Occam’s -Razor--that philosophical tool of admirable properties:--“Entia non -multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.” - -We want another razor--a Relativist Razor; and with that we will carry -out barbering operations worthy of another Shaving of Shagpat: we will -shave the Absolute. - -The hoary Absolute, enormous and venerable, grey-bearded and -grey-locked--he sits enthroned, wielding tremendous power, filling -young minds with fear and awe. - -Up, barbers, and at him! Heat the water of your enthusiasm: lather -those disguising appurtenances. See the tufts collapse into the white -foam--feel the hairy jungles melt away before your steel! And at the -end, when the last hair falls, you will wipe away the lather, and look -upon that face and see--ah, what indeed? - -I will not be so banal as to attempt to describe that sight in -detail. You will have seen it already in your mind’s eye: “or else” -(to quote Mr. Belloc)--“or else you will not; I cannot be positive -which.” If not, you never will; if yes, what need to waste more of the -compositor’s time? But of him who forges that razor, who arms those -barbers, who gives them courage for their colossal task, of him shall a -new Lucretius sing. - - -BIBLIOGRAPHY - - Belloc, H. “The Bad Child’s Book of Beasts.” - - Bergson, H. “Time and Free-Will.” - - Carroll, L. “Alice in Wonderland.” - - ---- ---- “Alice Through the Looking Glass.” - - Clerk Maxwell. “Collected Papers.” - - Einstein. See Kant. - - Hegel. See Einstein. - - Kant. See Hegel. - - Lear, E. “Nonsense Songs and Stories.” - - Lucretius. “De Rerum Natura.” - - Macaulay, Lord. “Essays.” - - Mee, A. “Children’s Encyclopædia.” - - Meredith, G. “The Shaving of Shagpat.” - - Occam, W. de. “Opera Omnia.” - - Shapley. Proc. Nat. Ac. Sci., 6, 204. - - Swift, J. “Gulliver’s Travels.” - - Wells, H. G. “The New Accelerator.” - - Wheeler, W. M. “Ants” (Columbia University Series). - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[41] Read before the Heretics Club, Cambridge, May 1922. - -[42] The reading of this paper brought a string of informants eager -to let me know that Mr. Wells had already written a story on this -theme. I was grateful to them for having caused me to read the _New -Accelerator_, which by some strange chance I had managed to miss: but -Mr. Wells’s treatment is so wholly different from that which I have -sketched that I feel no scruples in letting it stand: and, if amends -are needed, at least I make him a present of the germ of a new tale, -and so feel that honour should be satisfied. - - - - -VI - -RATIONALISM AND THE IDEA OF GOD - - - GODS - - Surprised by doubt, and longing but to know, - I asked of men and books what God might be:-- - “An immanent spirit, clothed with the world we see”-- - “A King of kings, ruler of all below”-- - “Pure Love”--“A golden calf set up for show”-- - “A jealous chief and tribal sectary”-- - “Figment of fear and Man’s servility”-- - “The final Judge that dooms to joy or woe” ... - - I turned away; and found my God alone. - God is the world--yet captive in our thought: - Our thought--when it the head of the world is grown: - Love--with what love we to ourselves have taught. - The Soul must incarnate Divinity, - And God in each anew must builded be. - - - - -RATIONALISM AND THE IDEA OF GOD - - - “Du gleichst dem Geist, den du begreifst.” - --GOETHE. - - - “Nowadays, matters of national defence, of politics, of religion, - are still too important for Knowledge, and remain subjects for - certitude; that is to say, in them we still prefer the comfort of - instinctive belief because we have not learnt adequately to value - the capacity to foretell.”--W. TROTTER. - - -No one who has read Flaubert’s _Tentation de St. Antoine_ will be -likely to forget that amazing procession of Gods, hundreds upon -hundreds, in every diversity of form, defiling past the visionary -Saint to topple over into the abyss of nothingness and be for ever -destroyed--the doomed and outworn divinities of man’s childhood and -adolescence, put away as he came to maturity. “Man created God in his -own image,” wrote the irrepressible pen of Voltaire; and if it is not -always true that Gods have been in his own image, but also in the image -of animals and monsters, of embodied fears and hopes, it is indubitable -that man has created God after God, only to throw them on the scrapheap -as he outgrows them, like a child rejecting his old toys for new. - -Indubitable--in a sense; indubitable that he has given each of them -their peculiar and characteristic form, endowed this and that God -with different qualities. But there is another part which he has not -created, which he can only perceive, mould, clothe. The raw material of -Divinity and its elemental attributes are given--man can but take it or -leave it; and, what is more, it is difficult for him to leave it. It is -given as the raw material and elemental attributes of life are given, -and the evolutionary process can but take them. Man moulds and forms; -but evolution has no more created living matter than he Divinity. - - * * * * * * * - -I propose, then, to lay down as my main point that the idea of God is -an inevitable product of biological evolution, arising when the human -type of mind first came into being, and taking shape and form as a -definite God or Gods. That the Gods who thus arise, although of course -they play a rôle in the affairs of the human species only, have a -definite biological function. That the term God can still be properly -and profitably employed to denote a certain complex of phenomena, with -a certain function in human evolution. - -What, then, do we mean by saying that the idea of God arises inevitably -with the appearance of man upon the evolutionary scene? How can the -appearance of man account for such a curious phenomenon? - -With man, for the first time in the history of life upon the earth, an -organism appeared capable of generalizing, of framing concepts, and of -communicating them to his fellows. Through sense-organs and brain, an -organism reflects in its mind some of the events of the world outside, -creates some sort of a microcosm over against the macroscosm. But -the animal with no more than associative memory can at best create a -haphazard microcosm, a mere cinema record, and incomplete at that, of -the most elementary organization; while all one can say of its power -of profiting by experience is that a certain primitive plot is thus -provided for the series of adventures which make up the scenario. - -With an organism like man, however, in which to the faculty of -associative memory there has been superadded the power of framing -concepts and of accumulating experience by tradition, the picture is -altogether changed. The microcosm becomes more highly organized; from -rough-and-tumble cinema it develops into an elaborate drama, whose plot -is knotted up in the same general way as that of the great macrocosmic -drama unrolling itself outside. Microcosm images macrocosm more nearly, -both in its form and in its scope. As result of this, life is for the -first time enabled in man’s person to frame some general ideas of the -outer world. Not only is it enabled, it cannot help but do so. The -outer world is there; it impinges through man’s sense-organs on his -mind, and his mind is so constructed that, if it thinks at all, it must -think in general terms. - -For the first time, life becomes aware of something more than a set -of events; it becomes aware of a system of powers operating in -events. These powers (to use a general, and what is intended to be a -non-committal, term) are in constant action upon man’s life. There is -a power in the sun, a power in the storm, in the growth of crops, in -wild beasts, in strange tribes, in the unrealized recesses of man’s own -heart; and in the course of his life man is brought into contact with -these powers, which may act with him or against him. Man frames his own -idea of these powers; and once that idea is framed, it exerts an effect -upon the rest of his ideas, upon his emotions, upon his conduct. The -more strongly the idea is held, the greater the effect. - -But the idea may obviously be held and organized in many different -ways. It is when the idea is organized in one particular way that -we call it religious. We call it religious when on the one hand it -involves some recognition of powers operating so as to underlie the -general operations of the world; and, on the other hand, when it -involves the emotions. It must involve the idea of the general powers -operating in the outer world; so that an emotional reaction entirely -limited to a single human being, or to beauty, or to a single event, -is not religious. And it must involve the emotional nature of man, so -that a purely intellectual investigation of the powers in operation, or -a purely practical response, a purely moral reaction to them, is again -not religious. - - * * * * * * * - -In primitive societies, as the studies of a Frazer or a Rivers have -shown us, the whole of life is enmeshed with religion, and there is -scarcely an activity of man which is not spun round with religious -emotion and ritual. Very often the idea of God has not in this stage -been clearly formulated; there is simply a notion of _power_, of -mysterious influence, sometimes partly crystallized round a primitive -deity. Later, however, the power became frankly anthropomorphic, and -Gods came into being--many or one. Man had projected the idea of that -active agency he knew best--human personality--into his idea of cosmic -powers. - -Into the God thus fashioned there are always projected, to greater or -less degree, the ideals of the community; and thus, at a certain stage -of development, we find definitely tribal Gods. Here the biological -function of Gods becomes extremely obvious. The God, by his inspired -prophets and priests, orders the destruction of his rivals--the false -Gods of neighbouring tribes--or of his enemies, the members of those -tribes. - -The people of the tribe, however the result may have been brought -about, do as a matter of fact find themselves, all unconsciously, -caught up in the system which they and their forefathers have made. -They have fashioned their God so that their inmost life is joined -to him. When they sin, they fear him; when they look into their own -hearts to take stock of their ultimate ideals, they find that these are -attached, through the impalpable but infinitely resistant fibres of -tradition, of childish memory and of education, to him; he is on their -side against their enemies, so that their advantage is on the whole his. - -Whatever, therefore, arouses the idea of God in their minds will send -messages into every corner of their being. And if they can be firmly -persuaded that God wishes something done, the call will pull at their -heart-strings and bring them to convinced and united action. - -The most familiar example of this type of effect is to be found in the -history of the Jews in the Old Testament. But even to-day such tribal -ideas are not extinct: an educated and charming lady said to me during -the war--“I am convinced that if Jesus Christ were alive to-day He -would be fighting on the side of the Allies.” ... - - * * * * * * * - -In our further analysis we must carefully distinguish between the -outer and inner components of the idea of God. The outer components -are the powers acting upon man. Some of these are inorganic--storms, -winds, floods, the sun and moon; others are organic--wild beasts, -pestilence, crops, and fruits, domesticated animals; others again -are human--personal or national enemies, the community in which the -individual lives. And they may act upon man’s body or upon his mind. -The sun warms his body, but makes an impression on his mind as well. -The practice of astrology shows what power can be exerted on the mind -by quite imaginary properties of external reality. But, whatever we -may think of these outer components, there they are, and they do affect -us for better or for worse. Before such a heterogeneous assemblage -as is constituted by the outer components can operate as a single -idea, can deserve a single name such as God, they must be elaborately -organized. - -The contribution to the idea of God from within, from the mind of man -himself, is its form; and this form is the outcome of a process of -mental organization every bit as real as the physical organization -occurring in the unborn embryo. - -The essential thing about both is, as we have indicated, that unity -should arise in spite of diversity, and the resulting entity--organism -in the one case, organized idea in the other--should thus be able to -act as a single whole. - -The system of ideas which man holds concerning external powers may be -thus organized by thinking of it in terms of magic, of “influence,” -manifesting itself in different ways in different operations of Nature; -or in terms of personality, the manifestations of power being supposed -to result from the activities of a being or beings more or less -similar to ourselves; or it may be organized, as we shall see, on more -scientific lines, by carefully pruning away all parts of it which are -either definitely the mere product of our own imaginations, or else are -not proven. - -Thus what we have called the raw material of Divinity is given in the -outer forces of nature, which not only act upon man as they act upon -all organisms, but are by him perceived so to act in a way special and -peculiar to man alone. - -But, being so perceived, they are inevitably taken up into his mental -life and made part of his mental organization. They are often perceived -emotionally--to take the simplest examples, pestilence with horror, -storm with fear, the growing of crops with gratitude. They are bound -to enter into relation with his emotions, with his ideals and hopes; -bound also to be in some degree generalized intellectually. When thus -emotionally and intellectually built up so as to form a coherent and -unitary idea, then only do they deserve the name of a God. - -In parenthesis, let us make it quite clear that we are speaking of God -and Gods as they operate in human affairs, as they can be classified -by the anthropologist, analysed by the philosopher, experienced by the -mystic. These have always been constituted as we have described--as a -particular _idea_ of the powers of nature, the cosmic forces taking -shape through the moulding and organizing capacity of human thought, -or, if you prefer it, as an interpretation and unification of outer -and inner reality. The Absolute God, on the other hand, may be -one--may, in fact, operate as a unitary whole in the same sense as this -extraordinary product of the evolutionary process, this anthropological -God; but we can never know it as such in the same sense as we know a -person to be one. - -This may be illustrated by a common fallacy--the ascription of -personality to God on the ground that a purpose exists in the universe. -Paley saw proof of this purpose in adaptations among organisms. Modern -theologians, driven from this position by Darwin, take refuge with -Bergson in the fact of biological progress. But this, too, can be shown -to be as natural and inevitable a product of the struggle for existence -as is adaptation, and to be no more mysterious than, for instance, -the increase in effectiveness both of armour-piercing projectile and -armour-plate during the last century. The time has gone by when a Paley -could advance his “carpenter” view of God; when a Fellow of the Royal -Society could be sure of general approval, as could D. Pront in his -Bridgewater Treatise, with a work entitled _Chemistry, Meteorology, -and the Function of Digestion, considered with reference to Natural -Theology_, or when a distinguished geologist like Buckland (almost -foreshadowing later writers of a certain type on labour questions) -could ascribe to a Beneficent Designer the existence of Carnivora, as -a means to the increase of the “Aggregate of Animal Enjoyment,” and -solemnly open a sentence such as “while each suffering individual is -soon relieved from pain, it contributes its enfeebled carcass to the -support of its carnivorous benefactors.” - -No--purpose is a psychological term; and to ascribe purpose to a -process merely because its results are somewhat similar to those of -a true purposeful process, is completely unjustified, and a mere -projection of our own ideas into the economy of nature. Where we -experience only phenomena of one order we cannot hope to reach behind -them to phenomena of another order, or to the Absolute. - -The ground is now cleared for our real investigation--our inquiry into -the task which Rationalism has before it in finding how best what we -have called the raw material of Divinity may be organized by the mind’s -activity, how best clothed with word or symbol to make it more the -common property of mankind as a whole. - -The current Christian conception of God is of a person who is also -the creator and the ruler of the universe. This person has certain -attributes--is omnipotent, omniscient, and somehow, in spite of all -the unhappiness and squalor and cruelty in the world, all-loving. He -has personal qualities--he created the universe, and all that is in -it; he takes pleasure in being worshipped; is displeased when men -or women neglect him, or commit crimes or sins; takes pity on the -follies and sufferings of man; and was so moved by them (albeit after -a very considerable period had elapsed since man had first appeared -upon the scene) that he sent his son into the world as a redeemer. -(For simplicity’s sake, I omit all reference to the complexities of -Trinitarian doctrine, which, however important in distinguishing -Christianity from other religions envisaging an omnipotent personal -God, do not affect the essential point at issue.) Further, he grants -petitions, reveals himself to certain chosen persons, and is enthroned -in a somewhat elusive heaven, where he is (or will be after the Day of -Judgment--opinions seem to differ somewhat on the subject) surrounded -by the immortal souls of the elect. - -Now this view, or any view of God as a personal being, is becoming -frankly untenable. The difficulty of understanding the functions -of a personal ruler in a universe which the march of knowledge is -showing us ever more clearly as self-ordered and self-ordering in -every minutest detail is becoming more and more apparent. Either a -personal God is a ruler without power, or he _is_ the universe. In -the former case he becomes a mere fly on the wheel; in the latter we -revert to a frank pantheism, in which the idea of a personal Being -can no longer properly be upheld. A personal creation of the world, -in any reasonable sense of that term, is now meaningless except for -a hypothetical creation of the original substance of the cosmos in -the first instance. Creation of earth and stars, plants, animals, and -man--Darwin swept the last vestiges of that into the waste-paper basket -of outworn imaginations, already piled high with the debris of earlier -ages. After the psychological insight which the last half-century has -given us, miracles have ceased to be miracles, and have become either -delusions, or, more frequently, unusual phenomena for which a cause -has not yet been found. The immutability of the fundamental laws of -matter and motion, more particularly the grand generalization of the -conservation of energy and the substitution by science of an orderly -for a disorderly conception of nature, make it impossible to think of -occasional interference by God with this world’s affairs. Accordingly -the value of petitionary prayer falls to the ground. Revelation and -inspiration have resolved themselves into exceptional mental states, -and are no longer looked upon as a sort of telepathy between divine -and human minds. If we reflect, we see that all these intellectual -difficulties in modern theology arise from the advance of scientific -knowledge, which has shown that the older ideas of God were only -symbolic, and therefore false when the attempt was made to give real -value to them. - -That being the quagmire in which traditional Christian theology -is floundering, it behoves us to discuss the opposite side of the -question, and to see whether the very advance of science which has -seemed to exert only a destructive influence may not have made it -possible to build up new and sounder conceptions of fundamental -religious ideas. - -We have already seen that the conception of God always represents -man’s idea of the powers operating in the universe; that it has two -components--the outer consisting of these powers so far as they are -known to man, the inner consisting in the mode in which the conception -is organized and the way it is related to the rest of the personality. -It is obvious that both man’s knowledge of the cosmic powers as well -as his method of organizing them in his mind can grow and change; and -man’s Gods can--and do--grow and change accordingly. - -The growth of science in the last few centuries has radically altered -our knowledge of the outer world. It has shown us, in the first place, -a fundamental unity of all phenomena, however apparently diverse. It -has shown us the inorganic part of the cosmos pursuing a direction--the -progressive degradation of energy--which, if it is carried to its -limit, will result in the extinction not only of life, but of all -activity. It has next shown us the organic part, sprung from the -inorganic but running a different course, ascending during evolutionary -time to increasing heights of complexity and to increasing control over -its inorganic environment. - -Finally, we have the psychozoic or human portion--that minute fraction -of the cosmos which yet is of a preponderant importance, since it -definitely represents the highest level yet reached by evolutionary -progress. In this sphere mind is the dominant partner, biologically -speaking, in the mind-matter partnership; evolution can begin to -be conscious instead of fortuitous; and true _values_ arise which, -incorporated in ideals and purposes, exert an effect upon events. - -As regards our own mental organization, psychological science has -recently shown us the enormous importance of what we may call the -extra-personal portion of our mind--all that which is normally -subconscious, or has not been during our mental growth incorporated -to form an integral part of our private personality. But this -extra-personal part of the mind may from time to time irrupt into the -personal, and does normally do so at some period of life. It is the -merit of psychology to have shown the true nature of this relationship -between personal and extra-personal, which was in the past a source of -an infinity of mistaken ideas--revelation, inspiration, possession, -direct communion with angels, saints, gods, or devils, and so forth. - -Thus the powers operating in the cosmos are, though unitary, yet -subdivisible; and, though subdivisible, yet related. There are the vast -powers of inorganic nature, neutral or hostile to man. Yet they gave -birth to evolving life, whose development, though blind and fortuitous, -has tended in the same general direction as our own conscious desires -and ideals, and so gives us an external sanction for our directional -activities. This again gave birth to human mind, which, in the race, is -changing the course of evolution by acceleration, by the substitution -of new methods for old, and by introducing values which are ultimate -for the human species; and, in the individual, provides, in the -interplay of conscious and subconscious, unbounded possibilities of the -invasion of the ordinary and humdrum personality of every day by ideas -apparently infinite, emotions the most disinterested and overwhelming. - -Still other light has of late years been thrown by psychology upon -the inner component of the idea of God. Recent work has shown, for -instance, that the mind, unless deliberately corrected and trained, -tends to think in terms of symbols instead of along the more arduous -paths of intellectual reasoning, tends to explain the unknown in terms -of the known, tends accordingly to project the familiar ideas of its -own personality as symbols for the explanation of the most varied -phenomena. The science of comparative religion has shown us an early -stage of religious belief in which but one idea held sway--the idea -of a magical influence residing in all things potent for good or ill: -the projection was so complete that no distinction whatever was made -between the personal and the impersonal. Later, the idea of particular -divine beings or Gods arose; and in early stages man still continued to -project not only his own passions, but even his own form, into these -divinities. The statement of Genesis that God made man in his own image -is in reality an admission of the converse process. Still later, the -divinity was purged of the grossness of human form and members, and, -gradually, of characteristically human passions; but God remained -personal, although the personality was now organized chiefly of ideals. - -There is, however, no reason whatever to admit that personality is a -genuine characteristic of any knowable God; but every reason to suspect -that it is, as a matter of hard fact, merely another product of this -property of projection so strong in the human mind. - -On the other hand, an analysis of religious experience as a phenomenon, -as something equally worthy of patient and scientific study as the -gas-laws or the methods of evolution, shows that the powers which -move in the universe, when organized by thought into a God, are -apprehended by the majority of the great mystics and those to whom -religious experience has been richly granted as in some way personal. -Although, if our line of argument is valid, this will be partly due to -a projection of the idea of personality into the idea of God, yet it is -clearly in part due to the idea of God being organized by our mental -activity to be of the same general type as is a normal personality--as -something into which concepts of power, of knowledge, and of feeling -and will all enter, with such interconnections between its parts that, -like a personality, all of its resources are capable of mobilization -at any one point. It will be one of the great constructive tasks of -psychology to ascertain just how such a conception is organized, and -how it operates to produce the experiences, often of overpowering -intensity and lasting value, which as a matter of record it often -does.[43] - -Put broadly and roughly, there are, then, three main accounts possible, -or at any rate actually found in occidental civilization to-day, of -the phenomena generally known as religious. The first is that of the -out-and-out sceptic--that they are all illusions, imaginations of the -childhood of the race. This is an extreme view which I do not feel -called upon to discuss. The second is the view of almost every existing -religious denomination in Europe--that God is a personal being. And -the third is one, only just beginning to take shape, which I have -endeavoured, with every consciousness of inadequacy, to outline--the -account made possible by a radically scientific view of the universe. - -Those who adopt the third attitude believe that the second is a purely -symbolic and not very accurate presentation of certain fundamental -facts, of which they are attempting to give what seems to them an -account which is closer to reality. Before the scientific work of the -last three or four centuries, it was impossible to attempt what we may -call a realistic account of this nature, so that symbols were perforce -adopted. In Christian theology man formulated a coherent scheme, which, -however, was purely symbolic, to account for the facts we have just -been considering. The chief feature in any such scheme must be the -conception of the powers with which man feels himself in relation; and -in this particular formulation his conception of these powers was that -of a God who was also a person. - -Now, the danger of symbols and symbolic thinking comes when the -symbols are accepted for real, and taken as they stand for bases from -which conclusions shall be drawn. The Christian theologians did not -hesitate--why should they, in their position?--to use the personal -nature of the Deity as one premiss in a whole series of syllogisms, and -to accept at their full face value the conclusions which emerged from -these syllogisms. - -If a personal God was ruler of the universe, then he must be -omnipotent; if truly divine, then omniscient; if worthy of worship, -then all-wise. He must be capable of interfering with the course -of events by “miracles,” of granting our prayers, of communicating -directly with us, of deciding our fate in afterlife. From these -conclusions yet further conclusions were drawn. If God revealed himself -in the Bible, then the Bible was “true” ... with all that this in its -turn involved as to our beliefs concerning natural causation, creation, -our relations with God, or personal immortality. The whole scheme was -self-consistent, and worked as well as many other human schemes. But -what if the whole premiss, of God as a personal being, ruler and father -and judge--what if this were not in fact tenable? Then, of course, the -whole edifice itself would come toppling down. That is what is actually -happening to-day. God, as personal ruler, is being slowly driven out -of the universe, but returning as this organized idea of which we have -spoken. - -Another cardinal point in the older systems has always been its claim -to possess a revelation of Truth which is in some real ways complete -and absolute. - -This leads us on immediately to a subject of especial interest to us -as rationalists--namely, the relation of religion to science and to -free inquiry. Religious beliefs, if they are really believed with any -conviction, will be to a greater or less extent dominant beliefs, -because by their nature they concern the general relationship between -man and his surroundings, which must bulk large in all our lives; and -it is matter of common experience with what obstinacy and fanaticism -they may be held. If therefore a system of religious belief includes -the belief that it is revealed, and therefore true with a more ultimate -and complete truth than the truths of observation or experiment, any -fact or idea which conflicts with any part of the system will be -inevitably treated not only as dangerous to the system, but as actually -evil: and this tendency is reinforced by the craving of the average man -for certainty, for intellectual satisfaction without undue intellectual -effort. The cynic who said that beliefs are generally held with an -intensity inversely proportional to the amount of evidence which can be -adduced in their support was not wholly or only cynical. - -Since, however, the progress of modern science, in addition to the -discovery of many wholly new facts, has largely consisted in a proper -investigation and a revaluation of the facts subsumed without full -analysis into the symbolism of theology, the inevitable result has been -for the two to find each other in constant antagonism. But be it noted -that it is not science and religion which are in conflict, but science -and a particular brand of religion. - -The essence of science is free inquiry combined with experimental -testing. The result is a body of knowledge, of fact, and -explanatory theory, which can properly be regarded as established. -By _established_, however, we do not mean that it is absolute or -immutable--we expect addition and modification. But we also expect -that, in the future as in the past, the additions and alterations will -not involve the scrapping and rebuilding of the whole edifice, but -that it will continue to be harmonious with itself, and to undergo a -gradual evolution. This has been so even with such marked changes as -the discovery of radioactivity, the new outlook in psychology, or the -rediscovery of Mendelism--the new, after apparent contradiction, has -been or is being harmoniously incorporated and organized with the old. - -This in its turn implies that toleration should ever be encouraged by -the scientist. Humility cannot be genuine if combined with unsupported -dogmatic assertion: and the recognition that the ideas of revelation -and divine personality are such dogmatic assertions brings a whole new -outlook into being. - -Putting matters in a nutshell, we can say that a system based on -revelation or on the pushing of unsupported premisses concerning -the nature of God to their complete logical conclusions is bound to -result in some degree of hostility to the pursuit of truth for its own -sake; whereas a religious system basing itself on scientific method, -while it must resign itself to being unable to produce a complete, -ready-made, and immutable scheme, however beloved of the multitude (and -indeed so beloved because it satisfies a lower and more primitive mode -of thinking only), on the other hand can be assured that its knowledge -and effectiveness will increase, and that contradictions will resolve -themselves, provided that free inquiry, free speech, and tolerance are -allowed and practised. Attempts to reconcile the old formulation with -the new facts and ideas, when not insincere, are doomed to failure -because the premisses of the two systems are different. - -In conclusion, we may perhaps point out some of the bearings of such -a change. In the first place, the change in our conception of God -necessitates the stressing of religious experience, as such, as against -belief in particular dogma, or in the efficacy of special ritual. - -Secondly, it emphasizes the need for tolerance and enlightenment. The -scientific view asserts not that its knowledge is absolute or complete, -but that, although relative and partial, it will indubitably continue -to grow harmoniously along the general lines already laid down. - -Another change wrought by the inclusion of all phenomena under one head -and the banishment of the supernatural is the inestimable advantage -that we thereby find the possibility of constructing a single general -view of the universe for civilization. At present there are two that -matter--the orthodox religious and the scientific. The religious starts -from the top, the scientific from the bottom; but the scientific has -been creeping up, and now that it has begun to attack the problem -of mind it will be able to drown the other out. Since the current -religious formulation is only symbolic, it cannot become scientific; -but since the scientific is based on the closest possible analysis -of reality, it can become religious so far as it investigates the -realities of religious experience. - -Once it has done this, we shall be able to construct a _Weltanschauung_ -such as never before, with roots in the ordered reactions of inorganic -matter, trunk strong with the steady progress of evolving life, and -branches reaching up into the highest realities of the spirit. Union is -strength; and it is one of the prime duties of educated men and women -to see that the present duality and antagonism at the heart of what -should be the central unity of civilization--of its most fundamental -idea, its conception of the universe--should be terminated. - -The new outlook will also interlock with the youthful science of -psychology to produce great results. Much of what now is interpreted, -by all save the few experts, in supernatural terms of the old theology -will become intelligible as a product of the natural workings of that -amazing thing, the human mind. We shall not have sects trying to -exploit the normal dissatisfactions and disharmonies of adolescence -in order to secure “conversions”; repressed tendencies will not be -thought to be the voice of a personal Devil, nor neglected ideals the -voice of a personal God. Irrational fear, to-day still the greatest -enemy of mankind and most potent annihilator of happiness, will, by -comprehension of its curious mechanism and its persistence, often -transformed, from childhood to adult life, become amenable to treatment -and be made more and more to disappear. Proper analysis of mental -processes such as repression, suppression, and sublimation will enable -us to make better use of our faculties, and deliberately to build up -treasures of spiritual experience now attainable only by the lucky few -in whom temperament and circumstances accidentally conspire. - -On the moral side, the idea that a Divine command has, at some remote -period in the past, provided a fixed code, and the belief in the -immutable truth of certain dogmas--these will happily disappear. -Morals, like all else, not only have evolved, but should evolve. We -shall find, for instance, that no excuse will be left for the common -horrified (and horrible) views of sex, as of something inherently -hateful, of all its pleasures as involving sin; for it will be realized -that too much of the present attitude is due to the projection of our -own conflicts and complexes, our own pruriences and pruderies, into -what might be innocent and joyous. But this merits a fuller discussion -than we can here allot. - -Again, if I had space at my disposal, I would write of the changes in -the position and constitution of religion brought about by changes -other than those in religious beliefs themselves. Most important, of -course, are the spread of education on the one hand, and the spread of -the facilities for the most varied spiritual enjoyment on the other. -If the people is educated to a point at which it can judge for itself, -it wants no special priests or clerical mediators; its mediators are -those who are specially fitted to unravel the intellectual, emotional, -and moral difficulties of its own day and for all time--poets, -philosophers, and men of science. The spread of facilities for reading, -for seeing plays and works of art, and hearing good music, means of -course that, whereas in ruder epochs the Church provided the principal -way of psychological sublimation, now sublimation and spiritual -refreshment can be achieved equally or more effectively (and every -whit as religiously) without ever frequenting a “place of worship” -or belonging to any denomination. This tendency towards fluidity and -plasticity, towards many possibilities of sublimation instead of one, -may by some be lamented. But, as a matter of fact, it is in full -accord with all we know of biological progress. Man has attained his -position of biological pre-eminence simply and solely by virtue of the -plasticity of his mind, which substitutes infinitude of potentiality -for the limited range of actuality given by the instinctive reactions -of lower forms. Humanity will always have some religion, and it will -always be of the utmost importance to man, both as individual and as -species. But the possibility of satisfying his religious tendencies -intellectually, emotionally, and morally, without rigid creed, limited -ritual, and iron-bound code of morals, will mean the liberation of all -that is best in religion from too narrow shackles, and the lifting it -on to a plane where it may be not only more free, but more rich. - -It is the task of Rationalism to see that religion, this fundamental -and important activity of man, shall neither be allowed to continue in -false or inadequate forms, nor be stifled or starved, but made to help -humanity in a vigorous growth that is based on truth and in constant -contact with reality. - - - (_For bibliography, see the end of the next essay._) - - -FOOTNOTE: - -[43] See W. James, _Varieties of Religious Experience_; E. Underhill, -_Essentials of Mysticism_. - - - - -VII - -RELIGION AND SCIENCE: OLD WINE IN NEW BOTTLES - - - GOD AND MAN - - The world of things entered your infant mind - To populate that crystal cabinet. - Within its walls the strangest partners met, - And things turned thoughts did propagate their kind. - - For, once within, corporeal fact could find - A spirit. Fact and you in mutual debt - Built there your little microcosm--which yet - Had hugest tasks to its small self assigned. - - Dead men can live there, and converse with stars: - Equator speaks with Pole, and Night with Day: - Spirit dissolves the world’s material bars-- - A million isolations burn away. - The Universe can live and work and plan, - At last made God within the mind of man. - - - - -RELIGION AND SCIENCE: - -OLD WINE IN NEW BOTTLES - - - “In la sua volontade è nostra pace.” - --DANTE. - - - “Ye are the Gods if ye did but realize it.”--CARLYLE. - - -“The next great task of Science is to create a religion for humanity.” -So says Lord Morley in one of his essays. It is a striking saying, -coming as it does from one in whom thought and action have been so -intertwined, one to whom reason, not dogma, is the basis of morality, -achievement, not emotion, its justification. - -Let those words be my encouragement; for they challenge at the outset, -and to my mind rightly, two of the most persistent difficulties that -confront one who tries to write of the relations between Science and -Religion. The man of science too often asks what science can have -to do with what he brands as utterly and wholly unscientific; the -religiously-minded man demands what gain can follow from contact with -the cold and inhuman attitude of pure reason. To those questions I hope -that this essay will provide a partial answer. Meanwhile I shall begin -with a perhaps less ultimate but more pressing question. That question -is asked by many men and women of to-day, who on the one hand feel as -it were instinctively that religion of some sort is necessary for -life, yet on the other are unable to do violence to their intellectual -selves by denying the facts that reason and scientific inquiry reveal, -or by closing their eyes to them. - -The question, in briefest form, is this: “What room does science leave -for God?” - -To the savage, all is spirit. The meanest objects are charged with -influence, the commonest actions fraught with spiritual possibilities, -the operations of nature one and all are brought about by spiritual -powers--but powers multifarious and conflicting. “Nature can have -little unity for savages. It is a Walpurgis-nacht procession, a -checkered play of light and shadow, a medley of impish and elfish, -friendly and inimical powers.”[44] - -But with ordered civilization and dispassionate observation a network -of material cause and effect invaded this spiritual domain. The -mysterious influences, for example, believed to be inherent in springs -and running rivers became personified, and, anthropomorphized as nymphs -or gods, were removed into a seclusion more remote from practical -and everyday life than their unpersonified predecessors. Later, they -retreated still farther from actuality into a half-believed mythology, -and then passed away into the powerlessness of avowed fairy-story or -literary symbolism, while the rivers, perceived as the resultant of -natural forces, were more and more harnessed to man’s use. So with -the wind and the rain, the growth of crops, the storms of the sea. So, -in due time, with the thunder and the lightning, with earthquakes, -eruptions, comets, eclipses, pestilences. - -This process of liberating matter from arbitrary and mysterious power, -of perceiving it as orderly and endowed with regularity of natural -law, of bringing it more and more beneath human control, was, on the -other hand, accompanied by what may be called a combined condensation -and sublimation of the spiritual forces accepted by human faith. They -are built up from spirit to spirits, spirits to gods, gods to God. But -now it seems as if this condensation had reached its limit, and the -sublimation could only go farther by resolving the one God into an -empty name or the vaguest unreality. - -We look back and see the Gods of early man, and are complacently -prepared to believe that they were based in error, products of mental -immaturity, to be relegated to limbo without regret. But what about the -present? Why should we shrink from applying the same process to the God -of to-day? - -Is it then to be so with every God? Is God only a personified symbol -of our residuum of ignorance? Is to hold the idea of God in any form -to be, as Salomon Reinach believes, in an infantile stage of human -development, and must we with him define religion as “a sum of beliefs -impeding the free use of human faculty”? - -I think not; and I shall endeavour to justify my belief to you, and -to show that, albeit much alteration and a thorough revision of ideas -is needed, the term _God_ has an important scientific connotation, and -further that the present stagnation of religion can be remedied if, as -has happened again and again in biological evolution, the old forms -become extinct or subordinate, and a new dominant type is developed -along quite fresh lines. - -In any case the man of science must obviously, if he face the problem -at all, take up a scientific attitude of mind towards it. He cannot -say that there is no such thing as religion; or try to whittle it away -by explaining that it is something else--a complicated fear, or a -sublimated sex-instinct, or a combination of credulity and duplicity. -A thing, if it is a thing at all, is never merely something else. Nor -can he submit to the pretensions of those who assert that it is too -sacred to be touched, or that its certainties are greater than those -of science. No--he must treat it for what it is--a fact, and a very -important fact at that, in human history: and he must see whether the -application of scientific method to its study--in other words, its -illumination by the faculty of pure intellect--will help not only our -comprehension of religion in the past, but its actual development in -the future. - -He can study it in various ways. He can use the method of observation -and comparison, collecting and collating facts until he is able to give -a connected account of the manifestations of religion and of their -past history; he can study it physiologically, so to speak, to see what -part it plays in the body politic, and how that part may alter with -circumstances; or he may seek to investigate its essence, to discover -not only how it appears and what it does, but what it _is_. - -Further, he must have some general principles to lean on in his search, -principles both positive and negative. He must be content to leave -certain possibilities out of account because as yet he cannot see how -they can be connected with his organized scheme of things; in other -words, he has to be content to build slowly and imperfectly in order -that he may be sure of building soundly. This is the principle which we -may call positive agnosticism. - -This very fact has been in the past one of the great obstacles in -the way of successful treatment of religion by science. One of the -attributes of man is his desire for a complete explanation, or at -least a complete view, of his universe, and this has been at the -bottom of much doctrine and many creeds. But before Kepler and Newton, -no truly scientific account could be given of celestial phenomena; -before Darwin, none of Natural History; before the recent revival -in psychology, none of the mind and its workings. In the second -half of the nineteenth century, for instance, science could give an -adequate account of most inorganic phenomena, and, in broad outline, -of evolutionary geology and biology; but mind was still refractory. -Accordingly, the philosophy of science was mainly materialist. But the -common man felt that mind was not the empty epiphenomenon that orthodox -science would have it; and he desired a scheme of things in which mind -should be more adequately explained than it could be by science at its -then stage of development. _Hinc illae lacrimae._ - -To-day it is at least possible to link up, not only physics and -chemistry and geology and evolutionary biology, but also anthropology -and psychology, into a whole which, though far from complete, is at -least organized and coherent with itself. If the seventeenth century -cleared the ground for that dwelling-place of human mind which we -call the scientific view of things, if the eighteenth century laid -the foundations and the nineteenth built the walls, the twentieth is -already fitting up some of the rooms for actual habitation. - -There are certain other domains of reality which have not yet been -properly investigated by science. Telepathy, for instance, and the -whole mass of phenomena included broadly under the term spiritualism, -are in about the some position with regard to organized scientific -thought to-day as was astronomy before astrology’s collapse, as was the -study of electricity in the eighteenth century, or that of hypnotism -in the middle of the nineteenth. What is more, the average man demands -that phenomena of this order shall be included in his scheme of things. -Science cannot yet do this for him; and accordingly the dwelling-place -that we are building must still be incomplete; it is for those who -come after to build the upper stories. - -This cannot be helped. What we build, we must build firmly; on what is -yet to be built, science cannot pronounce, except to say that she knows -that it will be congruous with what has gone before. - -What general principles, then, do we assume? We assume that the -universe is composed throughout of the same matter, whose essential -unity, in spite of the diversity of its so-called elements, the recent -researches of physicists are revealing to us; we assume that matter -behaves in the same way wherever it is found, showing the same mode -of sequence of change, of cause and effect. We assume, on fairly -good although indirect evidence, that there has been an evolution of -the forms assumed by matter; that, in this solar system of ours, for -instance, matter was once all in electronic form, that it then attained -to the atomic and the molecular; that later, colloidal organic matter -of a special type made its appearance, and later still, living matter -arose. That the forms of life, simple at first, attained progressively -to greater complexity; that mind, negligible in the lower forms, became -of greater and greater importance, until it reached its present level -in man.[45] - -Unity, uniformity, and development are the three great principles that -emerge. We know of no instance where the properties of matter change, -though many where a new state of matter develops. The full properties -of a molecular compound such as water, for instance, cannot be deduced -at present from what we know about the properties of its constituent -atoms of hydrogen and oxygen. The properties of the human mind cannot -be deduced from our present knowledge of the minds of animals. New -combinations and properties thus arise in time. Bergson miscalls -such evolution “creative.” We had better, with Lloyd Morgan, call it -“emergent.” - -With mind, we find a gradual evolution from a state in which it is -impossible to distinguish mental response from physiological reaction, -up to the intensity and complexity of our own emotions and intellect. -Since all material developments in evolution can be traced back step by -step and shown to be specializations of one or more of the primitive -properties of living matter, it is not only an economy of hypothesis, -but also, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, the proper -conclusion, that mental properties also are to be traced back to the -simplest and most original forms of life. What exact significance is -to be attached to the term “mental properties” in such organisms, it -is hard to say; we mean, however, that something of the same general -nature as mind in ourselves is inherent in all life, something standing -in the same relation to living matter in general as do our minds to the -particular living matter of our brains. - -But there can be no reasonable doubt that living matter, in due -process of time, originated from non-living; and if that be so, we must -push our conclusion farther, and believe that not only living matter, -but all matter, is associated with something of the same general -description as mind in higher animals. We come, that is, to a monistic -conclusion, in that we believe that there is only one fundamental -substance, and that this possesses not only material properties, but -also properties for which the word _mental_ is the nearest approach. We -want a new word to denote this _X_, this world-stuff; _matter_ will not -do, for that is a word which the physicists and chemists have moulded -to suit themselves, and since they have not yet learned to detect or -measure mental phenomena, they restrict the word “material” to mean -“non-mental,” and “matter” to mean that which has such “material” -properties. - -You will remember William of Occam’s razor; “Entia non multiplicanda -praeter necessitatem”; when we are monists in the sense I have just -outlined, we are using that weapon to shave away a very unrestrained -growth of hair which has long obscured the features of reality. - -Holding to these principles, we must, until evidence to the contrary -is produced, reject any explanation which proceeds by cataclysms, or -by miracles; a miracle becomes (when not an illusion) simply an event -which is on the one hand uncommon, and for which, on the other, there -has been found no explanation. Revelation too goes by the board--save -a revelation which is simply a name for the progressive increase of -knowledge and insight. - -Last, but not least, we do not pretend to know the Absolute. We -know phenomena, and our systems, in so far as scientific, are -interpretations of phenomena. - - * * * * * * * - -Religion has been defined in a hundred different ways. It has been -defined intellectually--as a creed; as myth; as a view of the universe; -it has been defined emotionally as consisting in awe; in fear; in love; -in mystical exaltation or communion. It has been defined from the -standpoint of action--as worship; as ritual; as sacrifice; as morality. -Matthew Arnold called it “morality tinged with emotion”; Salomon -Reinach “a sum of scruples impeding the free use of human faculties.” -Jevons makes the experiencing of God the central feature; and so on -and so forth. Is it possible to find any common measure for all these -statements? Would it not be better to unite with those who cut the -Gordian knot by writing down all religion simply as illusion? No. For -their point of view is meaningless. Even illusions are, in themselves, -facts to be investigated; and even illusions have a basis. - -But it is not necessary to believe that it is an illusion; the knot may -be untied. Ritual, Creed, Morality, Mystical Experience--all these are -manifestations of religion, but not religion itself. Religion itself -is the reaction between man as a personality on the one side, and, on -the other, all of the universe with which he comes in contact. It is -not only ritual, for you may have obviously non-religious ritual, as -in a court ceremonial or a legal function: it is not merely morality, -for men may practise morality, the most austere or the most _terre à -terre_, uninspired by anything that could remotely be called religious: -it is not belief, for we may have beliefs of all kinds, even to the -most complex scientific beliefs concerning the universe, which have yet -no connection with religion: it is neither communion in itself, nor -ecstasy in itself, as many lovers and poets could tell you. - -But because it is a reaction of the whole personality, it must involve -intellectual _and_ practical _and_ emotional processes: and because man -has the powers of abstraction and association, or rather because his -mind in most cases cannot help making associations and abstractions, -it follows that it will inevitably concern itself, consciously or -subconsciously, with all the phenomena that it encounters, will try to -bring them all into its scheme, and will try to unify them and frame -concepts to deal with them as a whole. - -Some men will be more concerned on the emotional, others on the -intellectual, others again on the moral side: but it is impossible to -separate any one of the three aspects entirely from the others. - -We will begin with and treat mainly of the intellectual aspect of -the problem, the credal side. For one thing, science has more direct -concern with it than with the others; for another, more continuous -and startling alterations have had to be made in it; and finally, the -actual problem is there felt most acutely at the present moment. - -What, then, is the problem? In the terms of our definition of religion, -it is in its most general terms as follows: Man has to live his life -in a world in which he is confronted with forces and powers other than -his own. He is a mere animalcule in comparison with the totality of -these forces, his life a second in comparison with their centuries. By -his mental constitution, he of necessity attempts to formulate some -intelligible account of the constitution of the world and its relation -to himself--or should we rather say in so far as it is in relation to -himself?--and so we have a myth, a doctrine, or a creed. - -At the present moment, as we have already seen, there appears to be -an irreconcilable conflict between orthodox Christianity and orthodox -Natural Science. The one asserts the existence of an omnipotent, -omniscient, personal God--creator, ruler, and refuge. The other, by -reducing ever more and more of natural phenomena to what we please to -call natural laws--in other words, to orderly processes proceeding -inevitably from the known constitution and properties of matter--has -robbed such a God of ever more and more of his realm and possible -power; until finally, with the rise of evolutionary biology and -psychology, there seems to be no place any more for a God in the -universe. - -Stated thus, the opposition is complete. But let us return on our -footsteps, and trace for one thing some of the history of religious -beliefs, for another re-investigate, from a slightly unusual -standpoint, the actual knowledge of the Universe which science has -given us. - -Man has developed: in early stages, his physical and mental capacities -developed; in later stages development has been mainly restricted to -his traditions, ideas, and achievements. As part of his development, -his religious ideas have altered too. - -At the beginning, he appears to have no ideas of a God of Gods at -all--merely of influences and powers, obviously (he would say) inherent -in the forces of Nature, magically inherent in certain objects and -actions--fetishes and incantations. He seems scarcely to have been -conscious of himself as an individual, or of the full distinction -between self and the external world. - -Later, perhaps as the idea of his own personality grew, he began to -ascribe a more personal existence to the forces with which he came -into contact, and so to turn them more and more into beings that can -properly be called Gods: polydaemonism arose and in its turn gave place -to polytheism. - -But while rigid custom was at first the only morality, and each -external power and each human activity was regarded separately, -later the rise of civilization led to a modification of custom, to a -reference of action and belief to the standards of pure reason, and to -an attempt at unification. Once this occurred, and equally so whether -the attempt at unification had an intellectual or a moral basis, -polytheism was doomed. Its downfall has been often described; the -reasons for it are suggestively put by Jevons in his little book, “The -Idea of God.” It passes through a stage where one among the gods is -pre-eminent: but finally even that does not suffice, and in its place -arises a monotheistic creed. - -Monotheism may start as a purely local or tribal affair--my one God -against yours. It may not only start, but long continue so. Readers of -Mr. Bang’s collection of startling German war-sayings will remember the -superbly national prayer of the Prussian pastor who addressed his God -(I quote from memory) as “Du, der hoch über Cherubinen, Seraphinen, -und Zeppelinen ewig trönst.” (J. P. Bang, _Hurrah and Hallelujah_. -London, 1916.) But this idea, too, is self-contradictory, and merges -into that of one God for all men. The primitive anthropomorphism -which had invested the first vague and mysterious spirits with human -parts and passions, human speech and thought, also fell into gradual -desuetude. It was kept up as a symbol, or because of the difficulty of -describing a God except in terms human individuality, but its literal -truth was deliberately denied. God became different from and more -than man--omnipotent, omniscient, with no parts, with no limitations: -but he retained personality--in other words, a mental or spiritual -organization of the same general kind as man’s, however superior in -degree. With time, the divine personality became compounded more and -more of man’s ideals instead of his everyday thoughts and attributes. -And thus and that God remains. He has created everything; he is in -some sense immanent in the world, in some sense apart from it as its -ruler--you take your choice according to your philosophic preferences. -Beyond that, organized religious thought has not gone; and now it finds -itself fronting science in an impasse. - -That, very briefly and roughly, is how man’s idea of God has developed. -But how have man’s knowledge and ideas of the natural universe -developed? What has Science to say to the impasse? - -Man has to deal with three great categories of phenomena--the -inorganic, the organic, and the psychic. In the inorganic, chemistry -first and then physics have given us a picture whose broad outlines -are now familiar. There is but one type and store of energy in Nature, -whether it drives a train, animates a man, radiates in heat or light, -inheres in a falling stone. There is but one substance. All bodies of -trees, of men, rivers and rocks, the clouds in the air and the air -itself, precious stones and common clay--all can be resolved into a -limited number of elements. And these elements in their turn can be -resolved into combinations, differing, it appears, only quantitatively -from each other, of electrical charges; so that at the last all matter -is one, and becomes perhaps indistinguishable, or at least inseparable, -from energy. There is no personal operator for particular happenings; -the lightning and the volcano are the inevitable outcome of the -material constitution of things, equally with the form and colour of a -pebble and with the fact that it will drop to the ground if it is let -fall. All is impersonal order and unity. - -There is, however, one other great fact about the system of inorganic -matter. The energy contained in it tends to be degraded, as the -physicists say--in other words to become less readily available. There -is available energy in moving matter. There is potential energy in all -matter, dependent upon whether it can be set in motion. But if the sea -were to cover the whole surface of the globe, it would be impossible to -extract energy from running water as we do now, because no water would -be running. So too heat is energy; but it is only available when it -can flow, when there are hotter and colder bodies. The law under which -transformations of energy operate has now been investigated, and it has -been established that in every energy-transaction a certain modicum -goes to waste as unavailable heat, so that, unless some at present -unforeseen change occurs, the last state of the universe, considered -as a purely physico-chemical mechanism, will be one of death, of -inactivity, with all matter at a uniform low temperature and the whole -stock of energy locked up and unavailable in this sea of tranquillity. -True for one thing that an almost inconceivable number of millions -of years must elapse before this “death of matter” is realized; and -for another that we are unable to understand how such a progressive -degradation could have been in operation from all eternity. We must -not expect complete knowledge within a few years or a few centuries; -but even if the beginning is veiled--for there is no more evidence for -a “creation” than for (say) a rhythmic reversal of the direction of -energy-availability--and if it is always possible that some unforeseen -change in the process should occur before the whole runs down, yet -it is a fact (and we are resolved to be agnostic save about facts) -that, here and now, a direction is to be observed in the evolution of -inorganic matter, by which natural operations are tending to become -less active, and the amount of available energy is diminishing. If -it continues indefinitely, first life, and later on all activity and -change whatsoever will cease. There is a tendency towards death and -towards unchanging inactivity. - -The next great category is that of the organic, of living matter. We -have to consider its origin and later history. So far as constitution -goes, living matter is merely a special and highly complicated form -of ordinary matter; and there can be no reasonable doubt that it has -originated naturally from non-living matter. - -While the _main_ direction of the inorganic has been towards -degradation of energy, it has shown another subsidiary direction -towards the production of more and more complex forms of matter. If our -general ideas are correct, there must have been a time when matter in -our ordinary sense of the word did not exist--there can have been no -atoms, only free electrons. From this state, there evolved one in which -the various electron-systems that we call atoms first appeared; later -still, atoms could join with atoms to produce molecules. Leaping over -vast periods, we would come to the time when radiation had brought the -temperature of the earth surface below 100 degrees centigrade; water -then could form from steam and solution occur. Through solution, all -soluble elements, which would otherwise remain locked in the inactivity -of the solid state, are enabled to enter upon a new phase of mobility, -of chemical life, as we may say. Only in water could colloid carbon -compounds first be built up, and only from such substances could life -originate. - -Living substance, or at least much of it, must be formed of molecules -containing thousands of atoms, each atom in its turn a system of -circling electrons. Here already is a vast increase of complexity: it -remains to be seen whether the same tendency is perpetuated later. - -The evolutionary concept is to biology what the doctrine of the -conservation of energy has been in the physico-chemical sciences--an -indispensable preliminary to proper methods of attack. But while great -stress has been laid on the various _methods_ by which evolution -may be supposed to have taken place--natural selection, Lamarckism, -orthogenesis and the rest--biology has concerned herself comparatively -little with the _form_ of the process in itself. But it is here that -evolution becomes of value to us in our present search; for once more -we become aware of a direction. Partly from the direct evidence of -palaeontology, partly from indirect evidence, but along many converging -lines, we can form an idea of this direction which in broad outlines is -unassailable. - -During life’s existence on earth--a period to be reckoned in hundreds -and probably in thousands of millions of years--there has been an -increase in various of its attributes. But just as in the inorganic -world electrons and atoms still exist as such side by side with -molecules, so also the earlier types of living matter continue to -exist side by side with the later. The increase is not therefore -seen uniformly in all forms at once, but is most easily observed by -studying the _maximum_ level attained. Size, for instance, is one of -these attributes; and whereas to-day all variations are to be found -between ultra-microscopic disease-germs and vast organisms like whales -and elephants, there has been a gradual steadying increase (tending to -a limit) in the size of the _largest_ organisms existing at any one -period. - -If we confine ourselves for the moment to the material side, we find -that the directional change in organic evolution can be reduced to -this--to an increase of the control exercised by living matter over -the environment, and of its independence of the environment--two -reciprocal aspects of a single process. When we look more closely into -the means by which this has been achieved, we shall see an increase of -the maximum not only in size, but in complexity, in length of life, -in efficiency of particular organs, in co-ordination of parts and -general harmony, in improvement of sense-organs, and, continuing even -after other tendencies have reached their limits, in brain-size and -consequently in complexity of mode of reaction and behaviour. - -If we turn to the psychological side, we find that there has been an -increase in the intensity of mental process. This is apparent in all -aspects of mind, on that of emotion equally with that of knowledge, -of volition equally with that of emotion. To be an amoeba or a worm -is to live a life almost without windows. Perfection of sense-organs -makes it possible for life to be aware of the different types of -outer events, whilst memory and, later, associative memory give the -possibility of understanding their history. In higher forms volition -can be maintained for longer and longer intervals, can attain greater -intensity, and can fix itself upon ever more and more distant objects. -With depth of feeling comes also differentiation, so that finally we -find in ourselves the possibility of organizing various blends of the -simple emotions into the compound emotional forms such as reverence -and admiration, called _sentiments_ by McDougall. - -Biologically speaking, therefore, the direction observable in -mental evolution is again towards increased control and increased -independence; by mental and cerebral improvement there is introduced -a greater accuracy and a greater range of control, as well as better -adjustment between organisms and environment, than would be otherwise -possible to the same bodily organs. - -The direction of life may therefore be roughly summed up in the two -words “more life”--more both in quantity (have not both land and air -been colonized during evolution?) and also in quality. More matter -has been stolen from the lifeless and embodied in the living; and the -living begins to be less helpless in face of the lifeless. - -The direction of living matter is thus in many ways opposed to the -direction to be seen in inorganic matter; yet not only has the organic -arisen from the inorganic, but its direction continues one direction -already traceable before the appearance of life.[46] - -Finally, we come to the psychological aspect of the universe. We have -already touched on it in connection with biology, and found that in -many ways at least the development of mind follows the same lines as -that of living matter, and helps forward the general trend of life. - -But finally a kink occurs, a critical point similar to that seen at the -origin of living from non-living matter. There the attributes of living -matter which mark it off from inorganic matter become dominant--its -capacity for self-reproduction, its tendency to organization. The -colloid carbon compound had been the highest known independent unit; -from now on this place was taken by the organism. - -In exactly the same way, in the final stages of evolution (as witnessed -abundantly by fossil mammals) complexity of purely bodily organization -had reached a limit, and survival, as is evidenced by increasing size -of brain, came to be determined more and more by mental qualities. -Finally the curve of mental development caught up with that of body, -and intersected it: mind became the dominant factor in the new type of -organism, and in the subsequent history of the evolutionary process. -The _organism_ ceased to be the highest unit, and gave place to the -_person_, or self-conscious individual with organized mind. - -This new critical point was reached when man arose; many authors -recognize it for what it is, the beginning of a new era, by christening -the subsequent geological period the Psychozoic. That period, -geologically speaking, has not yet run but a tiny span; and we are -no more entitled to think that we have reached or even imagined the -possibilities of its future evolution than we should have been entitled -to regard the possibilities of purely biological evolution as having -been exhausted after the far longer period needed to give rise to a -coral polyp or a jelly-fish as highest existing types of organism. Even -man as a biological species is in his infancy, not to speak of other -psychozoic types that may be waiting in the womb of time. - -But what are the characteristics of this new phase? In the first -place, mind has become self-conscious; thus the evolutionary methods -of psychozoic organisms may become conscious, and they come to direct -their own evolution instead of having their destinies shaped by the -blind forces of natural selection. - -In most respects the same direction as before is pursued, but new -methods are introduced. The rate of change, of movement in that -direction, is accelerated; and the possibility is given of eliminating -a vast deal of waste. A watchmaker sends out very few defective -watches: why? because he makes his watches on a preconceived plan. -Even when an improvement in watch construction is introduced, he can -draw up his plan beforehand, and at the worst, waste only time and -paper, instead of metal and far more time. Ideas do not need to be -embodied before selection can act upon them; thus an increasing amount -of evolutionary change will take place through the natural selection -of ideas than through the older and far more wasteful process, natural -selection of individuals and species. - -Finally, values appear upon the scene. If we could ask a wild animal -such as a fox what gave value to its life, and it could answer us, it -would doubtless say food, sleep, comfort, hunting, sexual pleasure, and -family companionship. But it cannot answer; nor can it know the value -of what it pursues, but only appreciate the result. Strictly speaking, -values do not exist for it. However, even if we allow ourselves to -speak of values in the life of pre-human organisms, we see immediately -that wholly new values are introduced after the critical point. - -Putting it summarily, we can say that, with the rise of mind to -dominance, various activities of mind come to be pursued for their -own sake, to have value in themselves. Our life is worth living not -only for the sake of eating and drinking, sleeping, athletics, and -sexual pleasure. There is a value attached to knowledge for its own -sake, apart from the possible access of control that it may bring. -But this is new, a property of man alone; not even Athena’s owl will -exert itself through laborious years to understand celestial mechanics -or physiology. The highest anthropoids do not attempt to create works -of art, which for man come to have value in themselves. Natural -beauty comes to have its value too; a cow (so far as known!) does not -interrupt the business of its life to admire the sunset, whereas men -may and do. Behaviour also is implicated; with the entry upon the scene -of that practically unlimited number of possible reactions which give -us what we call free will and choice, there comes a conviction that -some modes of action are higher than others; and so a scale of moral -values comes into being.[47] - -Nor is it merely that values, in the strict sense, are created; nor -that new values come into being. But with the enlargement of mind and -its more perfect organization, there arises a new method of appraising -values, and so a new type of value altogether. I mean of course the -so-called _absolute values_. Absolute values are never absolute in the -sense of absolute completeness; they are relative to two things--to -external reality and to our mental powers and organization.[48] They -are abstractions; we generalize the value in our minds, and at the same -time raise it to the highest pitch of intensity we can. An interesting -point arises from this way of thinking. Apart from the guarantee of -our own convictions, the observable direction of living nature is -our guarantee of right: or one had better say that it is at once the -guarantee and the touchstone of our convictions. But two things may be -moving in the same direction, and, if one be moving much slower than -the other, the slower may impede the faster; a pedestrian procession -making eastward along Fleet Street will hold up the life of the city -for a time, and cows walking along railways are treated as obstacles by -trains proceeding in the same direction. So it comes about that much -that was once progressive in organic evolution has become an obstacle -or a drag to psychozoic evolution; it is _relatively_ retrogressive, -and, from our present standpoint, bad. To take the simplest and most -fundamental example: evolution by blind natural selection was the -method of progress for organisms below man. Unceasing struggle and -courage was the chief factor in producing the grandeur and strength of -the lion, the swiftness and grace of deer, the brilliance and lightness -of the birds. But if the same end can be obtained both more quickly -and more bloodlessly by new methods, then the old stands condemned. -Here lies the key to the problem propounded by Huxley in his Romanes -Lecture--the problem of man’s relation to the rest of the cosmic -process, at once sprung from it by gradual generation and separated -from it by an absolute and unbridgeable chasm, at once one with it and -in deadly combat with it and all its ways. - -Our mode of envisaging the problem illuminates it, and shows it as -inevitable and intelligible instead of insoluble and tormenting; and -illuminates too many other minor problems of good and evil. But all -this is a side-issue: _revenons à nos moutons_. - -Unknown, or neutral, or hostile power: a movement similar in direction -to the direction in which history on the whole shows we are moving, and -to that which we desire with our highest aspirations, but operating -blindly; an acceleration of that movement by the coming of mind to -biological predominance, with certain consequent minor changes in -direction by major changes in speed and in methods. Three tendencies, -but all founded in one unity, and each arising out of the other--that -is the picture drawn for us by the present state of science. In this -sense, and in this only, can it be said that “all things work together -for righteousness.” - -One word on an important side-issue--the problem of evil in man, of -stagnancy and degeneration in organic evolution. Degeneration often -does occur--a reversal, in other words, of the main tendency. But the -positive fact remains that the _maximum_ level is progressively raised, -and that we find that stagnation of development and even sometimes -degeneration have been factors indirectly helping on the main direction. - -We must accept the positive main direction for what it is--an external -sanction of faith; confess that we do not understand the detailed -working of the whole, but see in the change of methods brought about -by the rise of mind a hope that we shall gradually learn at least to -dispense with much waste and evil and degeneration in the further -course of evolution. - -This main direction gives us cause for optimism. The exceptions to it -temper that optimism. But the direction is there. - -As we shall see later, we may either call the sum of the forces acting -in the cosmos the manifestations of God, who in this case must be the -Absolute God, and unknowable except through these manifestations. Or we -may confine the term God to its anthropological usage, as denoting the -objects of human religion, in which case we must admit that the term -God as understood by man is constituted by _man’s idea of_ the forces -acting in the cosmos, so that not only are these forces involved, not -only a possible Absolute God behind them, but also the organizing power -of human mind. - -I wish you here to agree to my adopting the second alternative and -giving the name of God to the sum of the forces acting in the cosmos as -perceived and grasped by human mind. We can therefore now say that God -is one, but that though one, has several aspects. There is one aspect -of God which is neutral to us, in a way hostile, mere Power operating -in the vastness of the stellar universes, apprehended only as orderly, -tending in a direction which appears to be in the long run inimical. -It is to this aspect of God that Mr. Wells has given the name of the -Veiled Being--a somewhat primitive term for a true idea. There is -another aspect, which is the one seen operating in that sphere which -comprises the whole of life upon this earth--a sphere infinitesimal -in relation to the whole, yet still vast in relation to ourselves. -This aspect of God is our refuge and guarantee, for here we find -our assurance that our human life is a part of a whole that is not -antagonistic, but moves in the same general direction as do our history -and our aims. There does exist, in Matthew Arnold’s words, “a power, -not ourselves, that makes for righteousness.” And this second aspect -is not wholly separate from the first, in spite of its difference of -direction; for the first is its parent, physically and temporally, and -the direction of biological progress is the continuation of a line of -development marked out, within the opposed inorganic direction, even -from the first. - -Next, there is a more immediate and more often demanded assurance that -we, as individuals or as single communities in space or time, are at -one with humanity as a whole. Here it is that we look to the third -aspect of God, which enshrines the directive forces operating in man. -These directive forces are our instincts, our needs, our values, our -ideals. When those are harmonized with each other and with the outer -world by reason and experience, they form a power which we can see -has been directive, normative in the past, and will continue to be so -in the future. It alters with man’s development; but after a first -rudimentary phase, its main outlines, its type of organization remain -the same, for man’s instincts and ideals do not greatly change, and -their harmonization with each other and with experience will generally -proceed in the same broad way. Although in a sense this aspect is the -smallest, as comprising the smallest physical field, yet in another -it is the largest, since man’s ideals are in themselves unlimited, -non-finite; and the values involved, to our present type of mind, -appear ultimate. This third aspect of God is again historically the -offspring of the second, and through the second of the first. - -Matter, life, mind--this is the simplest classification of phenomena. -By means of processes analogous to obtaining a resultant by the -parallelogram of forces, we can obtain a resultant of material -operations in general, vital operations in general, and mental -operations in general, numerous and varied in direction though they be. -Life is the link between the other two. Living matter is so definitely -one with non-living matter, not at all obviously one with mind; yet the -direction of living matter is obviously similar to that of mind, not at -all obviously one with that of non-living matter. - - * * * * * * * - -It is a simple fact that the conception which man has of the universe -and its relation to himself exercises important effects upon his -life. A name therefore is needed for this anthropological phenomenon. -_God_ is the usual name applied, and we shall retain it in default -of another, premissing that the word, like many similar general -terms--“love,” or “life,” or “beauty,” say--can be defined and applied -in many ways, and that we apply it here in a particular and perhaps -somewhat novel sense. - -God in this sense is the universe, not as such, but so far as grasped -as a whole by a mind, embodied in an idea,[49] and in consequence -capable of influencing that mind, and through it the whole course -of events. It is not grasped as a mere sum of details, but, however -vaguely and imperfectly, as a single idea, unitary in spite of its -complexity. Nor is it the universe in itself, but only so far as it -has been thus grasped by mind. There exists no other meaning of the -term which, on analysis, is found to convey anything, or at least -anything scientific or comprehensible, to us. We may reason that there -is an Absolute God behind the universe and our idea of it. But we have -no proof of this statement, and such an Absolute God is, as Spencer -pointed out, an Unknowable, and accordingly no concern of ours. That -part and these aspects of the universe which have been grasped by us -may prove to contain the key to many of our difficulties; meanwhile -we can only be humble and admit that our idea of God, even in this -restricted sense, is still extremely incomplete: and in this sense -there is a God far greater than our present idea and knowledge of God, -only waiting to be discovered. - -That which it is essential to establish is our way of looking at the -problem. The universe does come into relation with our minds, and -there, owing to the way it and our minds are organized, generates an -idea which exerts an influence upon us. - -The external basis of the idea of God is thus constituted by the forces -operating in the universe. The universe is a unitary whole, greater and -more powerful than ourselves, and its operations have resultants in -certain main directions--these are phenomena which we constatate like -any other phenomena. They, and that other phenomenon of our contact -with the Universe and our exposure to the play of its forces, give us -our objective knowledge of God. The rest of our idea of God, the inner -component, depends upon the mode of action of our minds. - -So far, then, we have shown that recent advance in science, -particularly in our understanding of evolution, has enabled us to give -a more objective account than ever before of what is involved in the -concept _God_, and so to pave the way for a consensus of thought on the -question. - -It will be observed that there is no idea of personality implicit in -this conception of God--God may or may not possess personality. It will -be for us later to investigate that particular aspect of the problem. - -It now remains to deal with the inner reality. Man has a wholly new -type of mind. He is social and capable of speech. He generalizes, and -he has a very highly developed power of association. This combination -gives him a great many possibilities hitherto denied to life. In the -first place, he is able to order his experiences in a totally new way, -differing from the old very much as a classified card-index differs -from a rough diary-record of events. The organization of his mind is -elastic, capable of indefinite expansion and of specialization in any -direction. - -That being so, there will be always parts of his mind wholly or at -least partially undeveloped; and in any case the capacities which he -must employ in his everyday life, the region of his mind illuminated by -the attention needed in the struggle for existence, constitute but a -fraction of his mental self and its potentialities. - -This brings us on to one of the most important achievements of modern -psychology--the discovery and analysis of the subconscious. Impossible -here to go into detail; we must content ourselves with a few broad -statements. When we speak of the subconscious mind, we mean that in -man there exist processes which appear for many reasons to be of the -same nature as those of the normal mind (in that they are associated -with the same parts of the nervous system, fulfil the same general -biological functions, and probably operate through similar mechanisms), -with the single exception that we are not conscious of them as such.[50] - -The conscious mind, that which we think of as the basis of our mental -individuality, as our personal being, is the result of a long process -of organization. We come into the world with a set of instinctive and -emotional reactions only waiting their proper stimuli to be fired -off, with a capacity for learning, for amassing experience, and a -capacity for modifying our instincts and our behaviour according to our -experience. We incorporate experience in ourselves, and in so doing -we alter the original basis of our reactions; a strongly emotional -experience colours all that is closely associated with it; and so after -birth we are continually making our mental microcosm not only larger -but qualitatively more complex, in exactly the same way as before birth -our body grew not only in size, but also in complexity of organization. - -Parts of experience or of inherited tendencies may fail to become -organically connected with the main parts of our minds, simply because -attention has never been focussed on them, or has not attempted to -bring them into relation with the rest. They are, shall we say, like -bricks which might have been used in a building, but have been left -lying on the ground by the workmen. - -Still more remarkable are the methods by which harmony is achieved -in the personal mind. It is obvious that a conflict of any sort -between parts of the mind will waste energy, will prevent a clear-cut -reaction being given in either direction, and so constitute a grave -biological disadvantage by making us fall between two stools. If a -child gets a serious fright in the dark, darkness will tend to arouse -fear. But darkness also comes with evening and with the time for -sleep. Two modes of reaction to darkness are therefore given, and they -are self-contradictory. One part of the mind comes down its pathway -towards action, and finds itself met by another which is coming along -the same path in the opposite direction. If neither moves, there is a -conflict; in our hypothetical case sleep is delayed; and if it comes, -is disturbed by nightmares--the echoes of the fright--and the childish -organism suffers. - -Exactly similar conflicts in which fear plays a part may occur in adult -life, e.g., in so-called “shell-shock”; or the sex-instinct may come -into conflict with other parts of the personality. - -These conflicts are resolved through one tendency or part of -experience being passed into the subconscious, where it no longer can -meet its opponent on the path to action. And this passage into the -subconscious can be apparently automatic, unwitting, when it is called -_suppression_, or performed only by voluntary effort, when it is called -_repression_. In the former case, it would appear that the conflict may -wholly or almost wholly cease; whereas in the second, the repressed -portion of mind is perpetually striving to come to the surface again, -and must thus perpetually be held down by force. - -If we hold by our metaphor of the building, then in suppression, -bricks which would not go well with the rest are stacked quietly in -the cellars; while in repression, part of the workmen want to build a -different sort of building, and have to be forcibly held down by some -of the rest to prevent their doing so. - -But in whatever way the subconscious may be organized it is always -with us, and there will always be a remainder of our soul, or of its -possibilities, which is not incorporated in our personal life at all, -as well as much which is not closely organized with the main everyday -personality, but is connected with it only by vague and loose bonds, -approachable only by narrow pathways instead of by broad roads. - -There is another process at work in the human mind which is of the -utmost importance for our problem. I mean the process of sublimation. -If it is not easy to give a short and clear definition of sublimation, -at least the process is familiar to all. The commonest example is -“falling in love,” where the simple sex-instinct becomes intertwined -with other instincts and with past emotional experience, and projects -itself in wholly new guise upon its object. We may perhaps best say -that a sublimated instinct has more and higher values attached to its -satisfaction than one unsublimated. The mere satisfaction of the sexual -impulse need be little more than a physiological desirability; but the -satisfaction of passionate love involves every fibre of the mental -organism, hopes and ideals converging with memories and instincts on to -the highest pitch of being. - -In such a case sublimation occurs with the normal object of the -instinct. But the elasticity of man’s mind permits of further -complication; the instinct may be not only sublimated but attached -to new objects. Through the cogs and spirals of the mind, the sexual -instinct may find an outlet at higher levels, and contribute to the -driving force of adventurous living, of art, or as we may see in many -mystics--St. Teresa for example--of religious ecstasy. - -It is as if a swift stream were falling into underground channels below -the mill of our being, where it could churn and roar away to waste. But -some of it is led off at a higher level, and we can learn to lead off -still more; and we can make an installation of pipes whereby it can be -taken up to the original level, and made to fall through new machines -and do any work we may ask of it. - -The mechanism of sublimation, however, deserves a few more words. -Recent work in biology has shown that in low forms of animals and in -early stages of high forms, the head-region is in a certain sense -dominant to the rest, in that it forms first and independently; but -that, once present, it exerts a formative influence upon the rest -of the body, keeping the various organs in some way under control, -making them different from what they would otherwise have been, and so -moulding them to the part of a single and higher whole. - -An extremely similar process is at work in sublimation. Ideas and -ideals can be naturally dominant over others, or they can become -dominant through becoming associated with primarily dominant ideas, or -by receiving a larger share of attention. Attention, concentration, -what you will, is one of the most remarkable mental functions. Not -only can the metaphor of intense illumination of a particular field be -justly used of it, but we may say that it seems to accelerate the flow -of mental process through a particular channel, and so to draw into -that channel the contents of other channels in connection with it, just -as a rapid flow of water through a pipe sucks in water from connected -pipes. - -As a result of this, sublimation involves not the suppression or -repression of instincts and emotional experiences, nor merely the -summation of them with another instinct, but their utilization as parts -of a new whole, of which the dominant instinct is like the controlling -head. - -When the sex-instinct is repressed, the emotional and religious life is -meagre, though often violent. When the sex-instinct and the religious -feeling exist side by side, without conflict but without union, you -have “the natural man” of St. Paul; but when the religious ideals are -dominant, and can catch up the sex-instinct into themselves, and in -so doing give it a new form and a new direction, then you get one of -the highest types of emotional lives. Or fear may be sublimated to -reverence; or sex again to art or to philanthropy. - -In every case, a new and more complicated mental activity or organ -is arrived at; and the same process that we saw at work in biological -evolution--the creation of ever more complex units--is thereby -continued. - -Then we come to the fact that man displays disharmonies of mental -construction, together with an innate hankering after harmony. The -most obvious disharmony is that between the instincts that are -self-regarding and those that are other-regarding--between man’s -egotistic and his social tendencies. - -It appears that man became gregarious quite late in evolutionary -history. Through natural selection, sufficient “herd-instinct” was -developed to ensure that men would on the whole stand by the tribe in -danger, that the tribe should become a real biological unit. But it -was impossible wholly to harmonize these new social instincts, even -in the simplest societies, with the old, deeper-rooted, individualist -tendencies; and as life became more complex and choice wider, conflict -grew more and more frequent.[51] - -Another obvious disharmony in modern civilized communities is the -fact that sexual maturity occurs long before marriage is possible or -desirable. - -In all this, there is inevitably a field for all the various -combinations of suppression, or repression, or sublimation. - -Man’s gregariousness, together with his power of speech, learning, -and generalization, have led to the development of a new thing in the -world--persistent and cumulative tradition. I use tradition in the -broadest sense, as denoting all that owes its being to the mind of -man, and is handed down, by speech or imitation or in some permanent -record, from generation to generation. Language, general ideas of right -and wrong, convention, invention, national feeling--all this and much -more, constituting the more important part of the human individual’s -environment--is part of tradition; and tradition is pre-eminently and -inevitably social. However individualistic we may wish to be we cannot -escape modelling by this social environment. - -The general effect of man’s gregarious instinct is that he desires -to find himself in harmony with some traditions, with the ideas that -modern jargon likes to call the herd to which he belongs. The herd -ideas, the traditions, may be those of a nation or of a stratum within -the nation; of a whole class or of a clique; of science or of art; of -a retired monasticism, or of an all-embracing world-civilization. But -they are always herd ideas, and through them man is always member of -some community, even though that community be tiny, or consist mainly -of writers dead and gone; and he always strives to put himself in -harmony with the traditions of that community. - - * * * * * * * - -A long-winded introduction enough; now for the bearing of it. One of -the essentials of every religion is its treatment of the subconscious, -is its view and its practice as regards the relation between the -personally-organized part of the mind to the remaining non-personal -reservoirs. At first the non-personal part is regarded as being wholly -outside the organism, and its occasional flooding up into the narrower -ego is regarded as an operation of an external personality, a spirit, a -God. Comparatively late, it is recognized as part of the organism, but -the process by which connection is made is still regarded as divine, -and called inspiration. Such ideas belong to the adolescence of the -race, in precisely the same way as the discovery and acquisition of -great tracts of this subconscious territory will always necessarily -constitute part of the adolescence of the individual. But any developed -religion must always in some way help to make these great reserves of -power accessible, always teach the enlargements of the personal ego -which their conquest brings about. This is one of the ways in which, to -use current religious phraseology, self may be lost, and found again on -a different plane. - -Religion must further always provide some internal harmony, in -counterpart to the harmony demanded in the unitary comprehension of -external reality. The various activities and experiences of life, -as they are originally given by heredity to the child, are either -independent, or else antagonistic and disharmonious. There must be some -means provided for bringing all of them into a true organization--in -other words into a whole which, though yet single, is composed of -co-operating parts. Here again the actual responses of actual religions -have been many and various; but they all operate by suppression, -repression, and sublimation, or by a combination of these. - -It can at once be said that sublimation is the right and highest way, -and that two of the criteria of religious progress are to be found -in the stress laid upon sublimation, and in the enlargement and the -elevation of the dominant ideas at work in the sublimating process. It -is the right and highest way because through it no spiritual energy is -wasted, and the age-long path of progress towards ever higher levels -of complexity in organization is still continued. Among religious -teachers, both Jesus and Paul laid great stress on this--on the -freedom, the emancipation from the shackles of an external law made -possible by the apprehension of some highest harmonizing principle -and the subordination of all other ideas and desires to it. Once one -can see and learn to follow such a principle, whatever one does is in -a sense right, because one’s desires are all subordinate to a desire -for right, and to something which is right. Perhaps it would be better -to say that they appear right to oneself, that the haunting, terrible -sense of sin is laid to rest, and one’s life liberated into free -activity, one’s energy made all available for achievement. - -The sense of sin, if not universal at one or other period of life, -is almost so, and comes from an apprehension of inner disharmony. As -one would expect, selfishness and sex are its most common roots; and -whenever it exists, then the necessary preliminary to any further -progress of one’s being is that it should be made to disappear. It -can disappear, as in St. Paul’s natural man, by a suppression of -part of the mind or of the connection between parts, or by a failure -to make certain connections, or it can be eradicated by a growth of -callousness; or--and I take it that this is the proper religious -solution--by discovering a clue which will harmonize the two apparently -opposed sections of experience, the two antagonistic tendencies, and so -resolve the problem with no loss of energy or of vital possibilities. - - * * * * * * * - -Finally, there remains to be considered the mode in which the mind may -best organize the ideas of external reality given to it by its pure -cognitive and intellectual faculties. - -Even from the purely scientific point of view, generalization is -obviously of value. When we have found unity in the outer world’s -apparent diversity, direction in its apparent disorderliness, we -have obviously achieved a great gain. But religion appears to demand -something more. If for a moment we look at the matter pragmatically, -we shall find that a number of the great mystics (and a large majority -of those of our own occidental type and tradition) speak of their -experiences of “divine communion” as being communion with a _person_. - -What does this mean? We have seen that a purely intellectual analysis -gives us no handle for finding personality in God. Can we suppose that -this direct intuition gives us that handle? To say so, to my mind, -would be simple obscurantism. Intuition, if it shows us reality, can -only show a reality capable in the long run of intellectual analysis; -to deny this is to deny all our premisses. No: their intuition shows -us that something akin to personality is perceived, but permits no -pronouncement as to whether its resemblance to personality is given in -its real nature, or introduced into it by their thought. - -If we look into the history of religion, we find over and over again -that man has taken something from his own mind and projected it into -the external world. The magic power of fetishes, the tabus incurred by -contact with certain objects, the endowment of the idea of external -powers, of God, with human form, the ascription of miraculous influence -to places or things--in every case there has been this projection. -And there is no reason to doubt that here again there has been a -similar occurrence, that man has organized his idea of external power -after the pattern of a personality, and has then ascribed this type -of organization to the external power itself. This projection Blake -symbolized in a sentence: “Thus men forgot that All Deities reside in -the Human breast.” - -The rival schools of psychology may disagree: but all are agreed that -some modes of thinking are more primitive than others, and even in the -most educated amongst us tend to persist, often in the subconscious, -side by side with more developed methods that have arisen later. - -The use of concrete symbols or images is the most widespread of these -primitive modes of thought. It is natural that the more complex -should at the first be described in terms of the less complex, that -those experiences for which no proper terminology has been hammered -out should be given names out of man’s existing vocabulary. That is -inevitable: but there is an even more fundamental process at work. It -seems as if the human mind works, on its most primitive levels, by -means of image-formation, and that emotions and concepts for which -no simple image exist may call up symbolic images by association -and indeed often dress themselves in these new clothes before they -present themselves to consciousness. Some such process appears to take -place in dreams (including day-dreams!) and possibly in the ordinary -thought-processes of savages. More advanced modes of thought substitute -the currency of an arbitrary token such as a word or a formula for the -barter of images and concrete symbols; the freshness and vividness of -the image is lost, but more efficient and speedier working is attained. -However, in most of us the concrete image-using mode of thought is a -relief from the apparently less natural and more artificial (though -more efficient) operations of reason, and we relapse into it, wholly or -partially, more often than we realize. - -This unconscious irrational tendency to symbolism, together with the -other tendency to project ideas properly attaching to the subjective -world into external objects and processes--these between them account -for much of the modes of expression so far found for religious belief; -and, since the majority of human beings have a profound distaste for -sustained or difficult thought, it is likely that they will continue to -account for much in the future. - -These are facts of extreme importance. The professional sceptic is -at once tempted to exclaim that every such projection and illogical -symbolism is illusion through and through, and must be wholly swept -aside. He would be wrong. We each of us must know from our own -experience the “influence” (to use a general term) which may inhere -in certain things and places. True that the influence is of our own -mind’s making; but it is none the less real, not only as a momentary -existence, but, as the term implies, as exerting a definite and often -a great effect upon our lives. The lover who cherishes a ring or a -lock of hair; the man who is drawn back to the haunts of his childhood -or his youth; the mind refreshing itself with some loved poem or -picture;--what do we have in these and innumerable other instances but -a peculiarity of mind whereby it may take external objects into itself -and invest them with its own emotions and ideas, in such a way that -those same objects may later reflect their stored-up emotion back again -into the mind? It operates by a form of association; but the actual -working resembles the charging of a battery, which may subsequently -discharge back. We have in it, in fact, a special faculty which, if -rightly used, is of the greatest practical value. Further, the symbol, -if rightly used and rightly limited, is of service to most minds in -giving a more or less concrete cage for the winged, elusive, and -hardly-retained creatures of abstract thought. - -So too, the organization of the idea of God into a form resembling a -personality appears definitely to have, at least with the majority of -people belonging to what we call “Western civilization,” a real value. - -Biologically, the essence of real personality is first that it is -organized, and secondly that on each of its many faces it can, if I may -put it metaphorically, enter into action at a single point, but with -its whole content of energy available behind the point. In other words, -man as a personality can concentrate his mind on one particular problem -of one special aspect of reality; but he is able, if need be, to summon -up ever fresh reinforcements if he cannot carry the position--more -facts, other ways of thinking and feeling, memories, reserves of will. -In a properly organized personality, it is possible to bring the whole -to bear upon any single object. - -Now when the idea which man makes for himself of outer reality is -organized after the same general pattern as a personality, it too will -be able to act in this same sort of way. - -When man in perplexity interrogates the idea he has of external -reality, he is anxious to put his little individual self in harmonious -relation with the whole of reality that he knows. Therefore he should -organize that reality as a whole, and in such a way that it can all -be brought to bear through any single point. The relation between the -self and the idea of outer reality is, for any one problem, that of two -pyramids touching by their points only; but the points of contact can -shift as by miracle over their surfaces as the problem is changed. - -But another power of personalities is their power of interpenetration. -The purely material cannot do this. One portion of matter cannot -occupy the same space as a second portion. It is another of the -great differences between the psychozoic and all previous stages of -evolution, between man and all else that we know in the universe, -that the discrete units reached at this level of organization, the -individual human beings, can achieve interpenetration by means of their -minds. When you expound a new idea to me, and I grasp it, our minds -have obviously interpenetrated. This is a simple case; but there may be -an intimate union of mind with mind which is the basis of the highest -spiritual achievement and the greatest happiness. If mind and matter -are two properties of the same world-substance, then the rise of mind -to dominance has enabled this basic substance to escape from some of -the imprisoning limitations which confined it at lower levels of its -development; do we not all know that despair at being boxed up, that -craving for communion? Using our previous line of argument, we see -that the interpenetration of personalities is right, implies a further -step in progress, must be part of the basis on which future advance in -evolution is to build. - -But to apply this to our present point. By organizing our knowledge of -outer reality after the pattern of a personality, we make it possible -for it to interpenetrate our private personality. If, therefore, we -have, in any true sense of the word, “found religion,” it means that we -shall so have organized our minds that, for flashes at least, we attain -to a sense of interpenetration with the reality around us--that reality -which includes not only the celestial bodies, or the rocks and waters, -not only evolving life, but also other human beings, also ideas, also -ideals. - -This, to my mind, is what actually happens when men speak of communion -with God. It is a setting, an organizing of our experiences of the -universe in relation with the driving forces of our soul or mental -being, so that the two are united and harmonized. There is a resolution -of conflicts, an attainment of a profound serenity, a conviction that -the experience is of the utmost value and importance. - -Up till now, we have been defining and analysing: here we see religion -in operation. It is a relation of the personality as a unit to external -reality as a unit--and a relation of harmony. First, the inner -structure of the mind must be organized into a harmonious unit, then -our knowledge of outer reality organized similarly, and finally, in -religious experience, the two must be harmonized in interpenetrating -union. - -Once this harmony has been achieved, it is for one thing so precious -in itself that it will be sought for again; the knowledge that we have -once reached the stage at which difficulties and doubts are resolved in -what the philosophers would perhaps call a higher unity, but which I -should prefer to call an organic harmony, is always there to fall back -upon in times of discouragement; and finally the harmony is actually -woven into the tissue of our mind, just as the amazing physical harmony -revealed by physiology has, in the course of evolution, been woven into -the structure and working of living bodies; and it can remain there -as the dominant idea to which the rest of our ideas, and consequently -our actions, are brought into subordinate relation. In other words, -it becomes the dominant sublimating principle. Once more, however, -the subordination is not forced, but free--we find that what we once -thought obstacles are aids, what once seemed sin is now the willing and -efficient handmaid of good. That is the fundamental fact in all genuine -and valuable religious experience as such--the resolution of conflict -and the losing, or enlarging as you will, of the private personality, -the mere “self.” You will find this set out more fully, though in -different terminology, in Miss Underhill’s books on mysticism, or in -William James’s _Varieties of Religious Experience_, or in Thouless’s -_Psychology of Religion_. - -One side-issue. Such experience, if not absolute in the philosophical -sense, is absolute for us. If I may be Irish, its absoluteness is -relative to our organization and to reality as we perceive it. We -cannot perceive anything fuller, more absolute--until perhaps one day, -with the growth of our minds, we come to have some still richer and -more complete experience. As William James was so fond of reminding the -world, we have no right to assume that our minds are, much less that -they must be, the highest type of mind realized in the universe--no -more right than our domestic animals have, although our minds to them -could only be measured by their own standards. - -What is more, owing to our power of framing general concepts and -ideals, and of accumulating past and future in our present, we can -focus a vast deal to one point. In such experiences, whether they come -through religion, or love, or art, we may say that although we are but -a system of relations, we touch the Absolute--although we are mortal, -we mount to the Eternal for a moment. Only, to guard against error, we -must remember that it is obviously not in reality the Absolute or the -Eternal that we attain to, but only the nearest approximation to them -of which we are capable. - -We can therefore sum up this second part of our investigation by -saying that religion, to be more than mere ritual, must involve the -possibility of harmonizing the parts of the soul, of wiping out the -sense of sin, of sublimating instinct, of rendering the subconscious -reservoirs of energy and being available for the personal self, and of -organizing the ideas of external reality into a single organized mental -whole--the idea of God--capable of reacting with the personal self by -interpenetration. - -Although he was moving to quite other conclusions, it is worth -recalling James’s ideas. For instance, “The line of least resistance -... is to accept the notion ... that there is a God, but that he is -finite.... These, I need hardly tell you, are the terms in which common -men have usually carried on their active commerce with God; and the -Monistic” [sc. Absolutist] “perfections that make the notion of him so -paradoxical practically and morally are the colder addition of remote -professorial minds operating _in distans_ upon conceptual substitutes -for him alone.” (James,’09, p. 311.) - -I may perhaps be rebuked for trying to analyse the unanalysable, -for neglecting the supreme and sufficing fact of experience of God -in favour of the unprofitable and impossible task of catching the -infinite in an intellectual net. There are two answers to this. One -is that unanalysed experience is selfish because less communicable: -with that we deal later. The other is even more important: it is this. -Humanity at large is _not_ content with emotional experience alone, -however complete and apparently satisfying: it has always demanded an -intellectual formulation of the reality with which it is in contact, -as well as emotional experience of it, and so far as we can judge it -will always continue to do so. - -But it is further found, as matter again of general experience, that -such formulations do not remain innocuous in the vacuum of pure -intellect, but reverberate upon action and influence conduct. When -men believe that they are surrounded with magical powers, they spend -half their lives in ritual designed to affect the operations of these -(wholly hypothetical) influences. When they worship a God whom they -rationalize as man-like, they sacrifice a large proportion of their -produce on his altars, and may even kill their fellow-creatures to -placate his (again imaginary) passions. When they believe in a Divine -Revelation, they think that they possess complete enlightenment on -the great problems of life and death; and they will then cheerfully -burn those who differ from them, or embark upon the bloodiest wars in -defence of this imaginary certainty. When they worship God as absolute -and as a person, they cannot help making deductions that lead them -into absurdities of thought and of conduct: they deny or oppose ideas -derived from a study of nature, the only actual source of knowledge, -because they conflict with what they believe to be immutable truths, -but are in reality conclusions drawn from false premisses; they tend to -an acquiescent and obscurantist spirit in the belief that such moral -and intellectual laziness is “doing God’s will,” when that will is in -reality their own personification of cosmic direction. - -Sooner or later, false thinking brings wrong conduct. Man can perhaps -get along with empirical methods and ideas which turn out on analysis -to be only symbols, provided that he does not attempt difficult -construction. He can have some sort of a religion, which will be some -sort of a help to him, even when its so-called certitudes are only -a collection of mixed metaphors, in the same way as he can practise -agriculture on a basis of mingled empiricism and superstition. But just -as he is finding that he is only able to raise agricultural efficiency -to its highest pitch by relying on the result of scientific method, as -when he uses synthetic nitrates instead of ploughing in a leguminous -crop, or just as a power-station would be very difficult to run if the -staff had only symbolic ideas on the nature of electricity no closer -to the real than is the symbolism of most religions, so if he does not -bring scientific analysis into the intellectual side of his religion, -he cannot realize religious possibilities. True that in a sense all -knowledge and intellectual presentation is symbolic: but there is the -world of difference between the merely analogical symbolism which takes -one idea or thing as symbolic of another because there is some degree -of similarity between the two and the first is more familiar, and the -scientific symbolism which strives to find a scientific counter, so -to speak, which shall represent particular phenomena as closely as -possible, and them alone. - -Not only this, but religion unillumined by reason degenerates into an -evil thing. Religion seems to be a natural activity and need of the -average human mind. But when its more primitive components are allowed -to dominate, when the instinctive and emotional in it are unchecked by -reflection and rational thought, then, as history too clearly shows -us, it becomes a cruel and obstructive power. To the fine mind of -Lucretius, the religion that he knew was the greatest enemy:-- - - - “Quae caput a caeli regionibus ostendebat - Horribili super aspecta mortalibus instans.” - - -And he replies to the charge of impiety by pointing to the foul deeds -perpetrated by religion: - - - “--Quod contra saepius illa - Religio peparit scelerosa atque impia facta.” - - -Many another thinker and reformer has felt the same. - -There are those who, like Jung, believe that religion is an illusion -but also a necessity to the bulk of mankind, and therefore should be -encouraged. But the broader and truer view, I believe, is the one we -have adopted. We have seen that, in man, evolution has reached a new -plane, on which not only have new aims and values appeared, but the -possibility of new and better evolutionary methods has arisen. These -new methods are only possible, however, in so far as life, in man, uses -her new gifts. The progress of civilization is a constant conflict -between that part of man which he shares with the beasts and that part -which is his alone--between man as no more than a new kind of animal -and man as a rational and spiritual being. In so far as religion -is irrational, it is no more than a dog baying the moon, no higher -activity than the nocturnal concerts of Howler monkeys, no more and no -less moral than the nobility of birds or beasts to a strangely-marked -or unusually-built member of their species, or the sense of being -a trespasser so often shown by a bird that has ventured upon the -nesting-territory of another. Recall the “Natural Religion” of Robert -Browning’s _Caliban_; on which plane did that grow? But when we have -discovered its real bases, and subordinated its impulsive promptings -to the control of reason and of the new, higher values in which reason -must always share--then it becomes an instrument for helping in the -conquest of the new regions which lie open to man as individual and as -species. And in this it resembles every other human activity without -exception. - -In religion the danger has always been that analogy and symbolism be -taken for more than they are--for scientific knowledge, or even for an -absolute certainty of some still higher order--and conclusions then -drawn from it. The conclusions follow with full syllogistic majesty: -but their feet are of clay--their premisses are false. - -If we find that this is the case to-day, we not only may but we -must endeavour to make our formulation correspond more closely with -reality, must not be content to take one thing in place of another, the -familiar for the unfamiliar, must set about destroying the old false -formulation for fear of the further harm that it will do by its hold -upon man’s incurable habit of drawing conclusions. - -Nor does this in any way interfere with or detract from the private and -unique experiences that in the long run _are_ religion. They remain; -but they are thus hindered from becoming draped with delusion, from -leading their possessor into false courses. - -We may put it in another way. Too often in the past, religious -experience has been one-sided--one-or-other-sided instead of two-sided. -The intellectually-inclined, the theologians, frame more or less -adequate ideas of external reality, but fail in the majority of cases -to set their own house in order, to organize the inner reality to react -with the outer; they have theory without practice, are Dry-as-dusts. -On the other hand, the emotionally-minded who are gifted besides -with organizing and intuitive power, the mystics--they build up -their own souls into a desired and lovely edifice, in which too they -have constructed a spiritual machinery capable of viewing external -realities on a new plane, under a more highly synthesized aspect; but -they neglect the precise analysis of that outer reality, and so can -only speak in the barest symbols and metaphors, and cannot put their -hard-won knowledge into a form available for others. They have that -non-communicable skill which is that of the craftsman alone as opposed -to the craftsman who is also in some degree a scientist. We know good -mysticism from bad, as we know good art from bad--as definitely and -as personally. And we are sure that good mysticism, like good art, is -somehow of supreme, transcendent importance; but almost always it has -remained like a purely symbolic art, not having for others the value -which it should have or did have for the mystic himself, because not -properly enchained, as the French say, with stern and immutable fact. -And of the theologian we feel that he gives us the grammar, not the -spirit, that he does not help us toward the supremely important act of -experiencing, but only to understanding experience if we chance to have -had it. - -One word on the problem of transcendence. The mystic will tell us that -transcendence is a hall-mark of religion at its highest. His mode of -experience transcends normal experience; things of everyday life become -surcharged with new, transcendent values; he has transcended from a -plane of disharmony to one of harmony. But the mystic is not alone in -this. Familiar examples are best examples: and the transcendence of -the lover’s experience is so familiar that all mankind is divided into -those who have it, those who long for it, and those who laugh at it. -But the great philosopher too must mediate between the transcendent and -mankind, and the true artist also, and the moralist worthy of the name. - -What goes under this technical name of transcendence, therefore, is the -product of some special psychological mechanism which may be at work -in the most diverse spheres. It we wish to substitute one technical -phrase for another, we can say that it consists in the successful -attachment of what we have called absolute value to some human -activity, so as to make it for the time at least unitary, dominant, and -all-embracing. But psychologically speaking the genesis of “absolute -values” depends upon the generalizing of particular values; the raising -of them to the highest possible pitch; and the putting of them and -the rest of the mental organization into a relation in which they are -permanently or temporarily the dominating head and front, and are -connected with and gain strength and support from all the rest of the -mind. - -The problem of transcendence, in other words, is not one of divine -inspiration, of wholly mysterious experience, but one special case of -the problem of sublimation; and as such it is to be investigated by -psychological science, to be understood, to be democratized, to be made -more available to all who wish for it. - -The most ardent enemies of traditional religion have often professed -the most transcendental type of morality. Some men are pragmatic -and utilitarian in regard to Truth; by others she is worshipped as -fanatically as any goddess. So some men deliberately make _mariages -de convenance_; to others, the transcendence of their love is such -that they precipitate themselves into what can only be described as -_mariages d’inconvenance_. - -I have dilated upon this at some length, because those whom we may -call the religious writers on religion so often lay such stress on this -question of transcendence and its special value and importance. But you -do not--in the long run at least--make a thing more important by giving -it an imposing title; you only give it a false exclusiveness. - -Transcendence is the experimental side of what we have been describing -all along: it is the finding of unity in diversity, the synthesis -of discord in harmony and in especial the finding of something of -supreme value (and therefore dominant) which can be linked up with the -whole extent of our mental being. Transcendence in religion differs -from transcendence in art or love only in its objects. In love the -discrepancy between the object and the ideal values hung round it is -often so glaring as to provoke laughter from cynics, compassion from -the rest. In art, the operations by which an artist turns a collection -of mean and commonplace objects into a beautiful and single whole, -a poet invests failure and death with authentic tragedy, or drags -every-day to a seat in eternity, are just as transcendent as that by -which the mystic converts the relation between the warring passions -of his soul and the infinite catalogue of differences which he finds -around him into what he can only speak of as a divine communion, -all-satisfying in itself, all-important for the conduct of his life. -Science can here help religion by analysing and interpreting phenomena -such as transcendence, paring the false from the true, cutting down -false claims, substituting the hopefulness of natural causation for -the illogical vagaries of supernaturalism and incommunicability. - - * * * * * * * - -I may perhaps be allowed to close with a few more practical aspects of -the problem. - -Many religious ideas and practices, as man’s thought clarified -itself, have proved to be unserviceable, and have been thrown on the -lumber-heap, or left only with the losers in the race. It is impossible -for any educated man nowadays to believe in the efficacy of magic, -or of animal sacrifice; to accept the first chapter of Genesis as -literally true; or to believe that God has human parts and passions. -But there was a time when all these could be, and were, believed. - -The time is obviously coming when a great many other ideas must be cast -aside in favour of new ones. If you have followed me, you will agree -that it is impossible for me and those who think like me to believe in -God as a person, a ruler, to continue to speak of God as a spiritual -_Being_ in the ordinary way. Consequently, although the value of prayer -persists in so far as it is meditative and a self-purification of -the mind, yet its commonly accepted petitive value must fall to the -ground;[52] so must all idea of miracle and of direct inspiration; -so must all that is involved in the ordinary materialist ideas of -ritual, self-denial, and worship as merely propitiation or “acceptable -incense”; so must all the externally-projected parts of the ideas -concerning the ordaining of special priests; so must all notion of -our having a complete, peculiar, or absolute knowledge of God, or of -there being a divinely-appointed rule of conduct or a divinely-revealed -belief. - -On such matters, most advanced thinkers have been long in general -agreement. But there is one very important point which, so far as I -know, has been very little touched upon--chiefly, I think, because such -radical thinkers have been for the most part destructive, and so have -not envisaged this particular side of the question. - -I hope I have been able to convince you that the scientific manner of -thinking can lay the foundation for something constructive in religion: -this great problem, however, remains: what sort of form or organization -shall any such new-moulded religion take on itself? - -We have just decided that fixed and rigid dogma is impossible, and that -completeness is out of the question. Yet humanity craves for certainty -and is not content to leave any factor out of the scheme of things. - -To this we answer that it is here that real faith enters. We cannot -know the absolute, nor have we discovered a goal for our efforts. But -we have discovered a unity embracing all that we know, and a direction -starting at the first moment to which our reconstructive thought can -penetrate, continuing till to-day, and showing an acceleration of -speed on which we may raise our hopes for the future. - -We do not know all. For instance, I have studiously avoided ever -mentioning the word _immortality_, since I believe that Science cannot -yet profitably discuss that question. But the discovery of unity in all -that has so far been studied gives us reasonable faith that its wings -will reach out to cover all that we shall still be enabled to learn, -while the unbroken continuity of evolutionary direction gives us the -same sort of right to believe that it will continue to-morrow and on -into time as we have to believe that apples will continue to fall to -the earth. - -The study of evolution may give us a further help. We have seen how the -final steps of the highest forms of animals have been in the direction -of plasticity of organization: we see it in the rise of man from -mammals, in higher as against more primitive levels of human culture, -in great men as against ordinary men. There can be no doubt that its -acquisition constitutes a step in evolutionary progress. Plasticity is -needed in any new religion. And plasticity means tolerance, means the -reduction of fixity of ritual, of convention, of dogma, of clericalism. - -It is clear that, as complexity increases, need will be felt for a -finer adjustment of satisfaction to mood, a more delicate adaptation of -religion to the individual. A few types of ceremony satisfied primitive -races: an elaborate system, fixed in essence, fluctuating in detail, -has grown up in modern Christianity. But the more complex the mind, -the less does it like to have to “wait till Sunday”--the less is it -satisfied with the solely biblical point of view, or the literary and -musical level of Hymns A. and M. - -The less also is it satisfied with the mediation of a priest. -Priest (or Priest-King) is sole mediator in most savage tribes: his -mediation is enormously important in the Roman Catholic Church: less -so in Protestant Churches: until with the progressive raising of the -spiritual and cultural level, it is perhaps possible that he may become -an obstacle instead of a help. Mediators there must always be. They are -the great ones--prophets and poets, heroes, philosophers, musicians, -artists, and all who discover or interpret or display what for the -ordinary man is hidden or difficult or rare. They mediate between the -utmost attainable by man and man in the lump. As Hegel says of one -group of these mediators, the artists, it is the function of their -art to deliver to the domain of feeling and delight of vision all -that the mind may possess of essential and transcendent Being. But, -with the spread of invention and the change of civilization, their -mediations are becoming more and more readily accessible to all. I -can get, on the whole, more satisfactory mediation from three or four -feet of properly filled bookshelf than from a dozen priests. Milton -will give me doctrine if I want it, but stupendously: Wordsworth will -reveal nature: Shakespeare the hearts of men: Blake can put men into -a mystical, Shelley into an intellectual ecstasy, while Keats and a -dozen others can open universal doors of beauty. What is more, if I -have had the mediation of wise parents and good teachers, or to be so -fortunate as to be enthusiastic, I find that in many things I can be -my own mediator, in the same way as the Protestant found that he could -read his Bible and eat the holy bread and wine for himself as well or -better than the priest could do it for him. - -Whatever we may say or like, it is an obvious fact that much of what -is essential in religious experience, which in a simpler society was -only attainable in prayer and sacrifice, communal ceremony or ritual -worship, is now attainable to an increasing degree through literature, -music, drama, art, and is, again, as a matter of fact, so attained by -an increasing number of people who do not profess a creed or belong -to a church. So that, as regards the personal, individual side of -religion, many of the functions of Churches will inevitably be better -performed through direct contact between the individual and the -mediator--philosopher, poet, artist, or whatever he be--who provides -the experience. - -There remains public worship and community-religion. It is clear that -whereas a Church in the Middle Ages was not only Church but also Museum -of curiosities, Art-gallery and Theatre, and in large measure also took -the place of our press and public libraries, now it is none of these -things. There is now less reason for public worship, fewer functions -for it to perform. On the other hand a religion is essentially in one -aspect social, and not only does the unity of nature demand a unity of -religion, but such unity of religion would be of the highest importance -as a bond of civilization and a guarantee of the federalist as against -the solely nationalist ideal. Moreover, to many types of mind, and to -almost all men in certain circumstances, the partaking in a public -religious ceremony in common with others is of real importance. It is -safe to say, therefore, that these ceremonies will continue, however -much modified, and that for them a mediator or priest, even if but -temporarily acting as such, will be needed. The problem is largely -that of combining in public worship the religious effectiveness of the -simple, the hallowed, and the universally familiar--such as inheres in -many of the prayers, psalms, and hymns of the Church to-day--with the -spontaneity and immediacy which, for instance, are to be found at a -devotional meeting of the Society of Friends. - -In any case, the new intellectual premisses once granted, the -limitations imposed on human mind once understood, the important thing -is to give a greater vigour and reality to religious experience itself, -whether personal and private or social and public. It is just here that -Science may help, where knowledge may be power. Atonement, conversion, -sense of grace, ecstasy, prayer, sacrifice--the meaning and value of -these and of other religious acts and experiences can be put on a -proper psychological basis, they can be shorn of excrescences, and -their practice take its place in normal spiritual development. That -is of the essence of any religion rooted in scientific ideas--that -comprehension should make practice easier and better worth while. - -I am only too painfully aware of the omissions which such a cursory -treatment of the subject inevitably involves. I have given you, I know, -little but dry bones; but bones are the framework necessary before -impatient life can animate a new form. If Science can construct that -form, the emotions and hopes and energies of humanity will vivify and -clothe it. It is with the aid of such intellectual scaffolding that the -common mind of humanity in the future, inevitably rooted in scientific -conceptions as it will be, must try to raise that much-desired -building, a religion common to all. - -In any case, I shall be more than content if I have been able to -persuade you first that the term God, just as much as the terms -Energy, say, or Justice, has a real meaning and scientifically-based -sense. Second, that the idea of God has and will continue to have an -important biological function in man as denoting an idea, organized -in a particular way, of the whole of the reality with which he is -in contact. Thirdly, that the physical and biological sciences, in -discovering the unity of matter and energy, and the direction operating -in cosmic evolution, have provided a real basis for what up till now -have been only theological speculations. Fourthly, that psychological -science, in revealing some of the mechanism of mind, is helping us to -appreciate the value of so-called mystical experience, is laying a -foundation for the proper spiritual training and development of human -mind, and shows us how the idea of God may be efficacious as a dominant -idea in the all-important process of sublimation. And finally that, -since the scientific mode of thought is of general and not merely local -or temporary validity, to build a religion on its basis is to make it -possible for that religion to acquire a stability, a universality, and -a practical value hitherto unattained. - -We are yet at the very beginning of that task, but I cannot close -better than by reminding you of another biological fact of importance, -that from all analogy the human species is yet near the beginning of -its evolutionary career, and that man has before him vast tracts of -time to set against the vastness of his tasks. - -A chapter in the history of Earth closed with the appearance of Man. -In man, the _Weltstoff_ had been made able to think and feel, to love -beauty and truth--the cosmos had generated soul. A new chapter then -began, a chapter in which we all are characters. Matter had flowered in -soul. Soul has now to mould matter. - -That moulding of matter by spirit is, under one aspect, Science; under -another, Art; under still another, Religion. Let us be careful not to -allow the moulding forces to counteract each other when they might be -made to co-operate. - - -BIBLIOGRAPHY - - Arnold, M., ’73, ’75. “Literature and Dogma”; and “God and the - Bible.” London, 1873 and 1875. - - Baudouin, C., ’20. “Suggestion and Auto-Suggestion.” London, 1920. - - Bergson, H., ’11. “Creative Evolution.” London, 1911. - - Boutroux, E., ’12. “Science and Religion in Contemporary - Philosophy.” London, 1912. - - Brown, W., ’22. “Psychology and Psychotherapy.” London, 1922. - - Buckland, ’37. “Geology and Mineralogy considered with reference - to Natural Theology.” London, 1837. - - Crawley, ’02. “The Mystic Rose.” London, 1902. - - Danysz, J., ’21. “La Genèse de l’Energie Psychique.” Paris, 1921. - - Flaubert, G. “La Tentation de St. Antoine.” - - Frazer, J. “The Golden Bough.” 3 vols. - - Freud, S., ’13. “The Interpretation of Dreams.” London, 1913. ’14. - “Psychopathology of Everyday Life.” London, 1914. - - Haldane, J. S., ’21. “Mechanism, Life, and Personality.” London, - 1921. - - Harrison, Jane, ’09. “The Influence of Darwin on the Study of - Religions.” In Seward, ’09, q. v. - - Huxley, T. H. “Evolution and Ethics. Collected Essays.” Vol. 9. - London, 1906. - - James, W., ’02. “Varieties of Religious Experience.” London, 1902. - - ---- ---- ’09. “A Pluralistic Universe.” London, 1909. - - Jevons, ’10. “The Idea of God in Early Religions.” Cambridge, - 1910. - - Johnstone, J., ’21. “The Mechanism of Life.” London, 1921. - - Jung, C. G., ’18 and ’20. “Psychology of the Unconscious.” London, - 1918; “Analytical Psychology.” London, 1920. - - Lloyd-Morgan, ’23. “Emergent Evolution.” London, 1923. - - Lull, R. S., ’17. “Organic Evolution.” New York, 1917. - - M’Dougall, W., ’16. “Social Psychology” (10th Ed.). London, 1916. - - Nicoll, ’20. _In_ “Functional Nerve Disease” (Ed. H. Crichton - Miller). Oxford, 1920. - - Prince, M., ’06. “The Dissociation of a Personality.” New York, - 1906. - - ---- ---- ’16. “The Unconscious.” New York, 1916. - - Reinach, S., ’09. “Orpheus; a General History of Religions.” - London, 1909. - - Rivers, W. H., ’20. “Instinct and the Unconscious.” Cambridge, - 1920. - - Russell, Bertrand, ’17. “A Free Man’s Worship,” _in_ “Principles - of Social Reconstruction.” London, 1917. - - Seward, A. C. (ed.), ’09. “Darwin and Modern Science.” Cambridge, - 1909. - - Thouless, ’23. “Introduction to the Psychology of Religion.” - Cambridge, 1923. - - Trotter, W., ’19. “Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War” (2nd - Ed.). London, 1919. - - Turner, A. C, ’16. _In_ “Concerning Prayer.” By the author of “Pro - Christo et Ecclesia” and Others. London, 1916. - - Underhill, E., ’20. “Essentials of Mysticism.” London, 1920. - - Webb, C. C. J., ’18. “God and Personality.” London, 1918. - - Wells, H. G., ’17. “God the Invisible King.” London, 1917. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[44] W. James, ’09, p. 21. - -[45] See Danysz, ’21. - -[46] See Danysz, ’21. - -[47] See Haldane, ’21; Thouless, ’23. - -[48] A confusion of thought easily arises here. It may be absolutely -true that 2 and 2 make 4; we may be absolutely right in certain cases -to tell a lie; or may find an expression of absolute beauty in some one -lovely thing. But we may grow to find that same thing aesthetically -unsatisfying; we can imagine a state of society in which it would never -be right to lie; while our correct knowledge of elementary arithmetic -is something very partial and incomplete considered in relation to -mathematical truth as a whole. - -[49] It is interesting to note that a scientific treatment of the -problem may force an author almost unwittingly to similar conclusions. -For instance, in Jevons’ book (’10) the term “God” hardly occurs at -all, whereas the phrase “the idea of God” is to be found on nearly -every page. If, as we are urging, God as efficient agent in the world -and as reality in contact with human beings _is_ outer world organized -as idea, the reason for such periphrasis at once appears. - -[50] See Prince, ’06 and ’16; Freud, ’22; Jung, ’19; Rivers, ’20; -Brown, ’22. - -[51] See Trotter, ’19. - -[52] See Turner, ’16. - - - - -+-------------------------------------------------+ -|Transcriber’s note: | -| | -|Obvious typographic errors have been corrected. | -| | -+-------------------------------------------------+ - - - -***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ESSAYS OF A BIOLOGIST*** - - -******* This file should be named 65145-0.txt or 65145-0.zip ******* - - -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: -http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/6/5/1/4/65145 - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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If you are not -located in the United States, you'll have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this ebook.</p> -<p>Title: Essays of a Biologist</p> -<p>Author: Julian Huxley</p> -<p>Release Date: April 23, 2021 [eBook #65145]</p> -<p>Language: English</p> -<p>Character set encoding: UTF-8</p> -<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ESSAYS OF A BIOLOGIST***</p> -<p> </p> -<h4 class="pgx" title="">E-text prepared by Charlene Taylor, Martin Pettit,<br /> - and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> - (https://www.pgdp.net)<br /> - from page images generously made available by<br /> - Internet Archive<br /> - (https://archive.org)</h4> -<p> </p> -<table border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff;margin: 0 auto;" cellpadding="10"> - <tr> - <td valign="top"> - Note: - </td> - <td> - Images of the original pages are available through - Internet Archive. See - https://archive.org/details/essaysofbiologis1923huxl - </td> - </tr> -</table> -<p> </p> -<hr class="pgx" /> -<p> </p> -<p> </p> -<p> </p> - -<div class="center"><img src="images/front.jpg" alt="front" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">[Pg i]</a></span></p> - -<h1>ESSAYS OF A BIOLOGIST</h1> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii">[Pg ii]</a></span></p> - -<div class="box"> -<h2>DUCTLESS AND <br />OTHER GLANDS</h2> - -<p class="center"><i>Fred E. Wynne, <span class="smaller">M. B.</span></i></p> - -<p>A brief description of the results of recent research into the -physiology and functions of the ductless glands and the application of -this knowledge to the prevention and cure of disease.</p></div> - -<hr /> - -<div class="center"><img src="images/titlepage.jpg" alt="title page" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[Pg iii]</a></span></p> - -<p class="bold2">ESSAYS <i>of a</i> BIOLOGIST</p> - -<p class="bold space-above"><i>by</i></p> - -<p class="bold2">JULIAN HUXLEY</p> - -<div class="center space-above"><img src="images/logo.jpg" alt="Logo" /></div> - -<p class="bold space-above"><i>New York</i><br />ALFRED · A · KNOPF<br />1923</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[Pg iv]</a></span></p> - -<p class="center">COPYRIGHT, 1923, BY ALFRED A. KNOPF, INC.</p> - -<p class="center"><i>Published October, 1923</i></p> - -<p class="center space-above"><i>Set up, electrotyped, printed and bound by the Vail-Ballou Press, Inc., Binghamton, N. Y.<br /> -Paper furnished by W. F. Etherington & Co., New York.</i></p> - -<p class="center">MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span></p> - -<p class="center">TO MY COLLEAGUES AND FRIENDS<br />AT THE RICE INSTITUTE<br />HOUSTON, TEXAS</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span></p> - -<h2>PREFACE</h2> - -<p>A preface should be long, like one of Mr. Shaw’s, or short. I propose -the latter.</p> - -<p>The essays here collected were written on very various occasions. This -must excuse the considerable overlap that will be found among them. I -have not thought it worth while to attempt to get rid of this, since, -though facts may be repeated, the point of view and general context are -on each occasion different.</p> - -<p>Contrary to all custom, I have put the meat courses at the two ends -of my menu. If an author may presume to advise his readers, I would -suggest that, after finishing the first essay, they should (if they -retain a stomach for more) proceed at once to the last. This done, they -will find the others all in a sense lesser variations (if I may change -my metaphor) upon the same themes.</p> - -<p>In spite, however, of the diversity of their occasions, there is a -common thread running through them, a common background of ideas. I -do not know whether I am justified in calling those ideas especially -biological, but they are certainly ideas which must present themselves -to any biologist who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span> does not deliberately confine himself to the -technicalities of his science.</p> - -<p>The biologist cannot fail to be impressed by the fact that his science -to-day is, roughly and broadly speaking, in the position which -Chemistry and Physics occupied a century ago. It is beginning to reach -down from observation to experimental analysis, and from experimental -analysis to grasp of principle. Furthermore, as the grasp of principles -in physico-chemical science led speedily to an immense new extension -both of knowledge and of control, so it is not to be doubted that -like effects will spring from like causes in biology. But whereas the -extension of control in physics and chemistry led to a multiplication -of the number of things which man could do and experience, the -extension of control in biology will <i>inter alia</i> mean an alteration -of the modes of man’s experience itself. The one, that is to say, -remained in essence a quantitative change so far as concerns the real -life of man; the other can be a qualitative change. Applied physics and -chemistry bring more grist to the mill; applied biology will also be -capable of changing the mill itself.</p> - -<p>The possibilities of physiological improvement, of the better -combination of existing psychical faculties, of the education of -old faculties to new heights, and of the discovery of new faculties -altogether—all this is no utopian silliness, but is bound to come -about if science continues her current progress.</p> - -<p>Take but one example. In the first half of last<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span> century, hypnotism, or -mesmerism as it was then called, was in complete scientific disrepute. -To-day, all the main claims of its founders have been verified, and -many new facts unearthed. Every text-book on the subject will tell -you that men may be made insensible to pain by hypnosis alone without -any drug, many women even being delivered of children under its -influence without suffering. Temperature can be changed, blisters -raised, and many other processes not normally under the control of the -will can similarly be affected. The mind can be raised to an abnormal -sensitiveness, in which differences between objects that are completely -unrecognizable in ordinary waking existence, such as those between the -backs of two cards in a pack, may be easily distinguished.</p> - -<p>If such possibilities are open to the empiricism of the hypnotist, -what may we not await from any truly scientific knowledge of mind, -comparable even in low degree to our knowledge of, say, electricity?</p> - -<p>But these in a sense are all details, relevant in a way, and yet only -details. There is something still more fundamental in the biologist’s -attitude. He has to study evolution, and in that study there is brought -home to him, more vividly than to any one to whom the facts are not so -familiar, that in spite of all appearances to the contrary there has -been, throughout the whole of evolution, and most markedly in the rise -of man from his pre-human forbears, a real advance, a progress. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</a></span></p> - -<p>He sees further that the most remarkable single feature in that -progress has been the evolution of self-consciousness in the -development of man. That has made possible not only innumerable single -changes, but a change in the very method of change itself; for it -substituted the possibility of conscious control of evolution for the -previous mechanism of the blind chances of variation aided by the -equally blind sifting process of natural selection, a mechanism in -which consciousness had no part.</p> - -<p>Most of mankind, now as in the past, close their eyes to this -possibility. They seek to put off their responsibility on to -the shoulders of various abstractions which they think can bear -their burden well enough if only they are spelt with a capital -letter:—Fate—God—Nature—Law—Eternal Justice—and such like. Men -are educated to be self-reliant and enterprising in the details of -life, but dependent, unreflective, <i>laissez-faire</i> about life itself. -The idea that the basis of living could be really and radically altered -is outside most people’s orbit; and if it is forced upon their notice, -they as often as not find it in some way immoral.</p> - -<p>Closely connected with this, in a sense its corollary, we have the fact -that ninety-nine people out of a hundred are concerned with getting a -living rather than with living, and that if for any reason they are -liberated from this necessity, they generally have not the remotest -idea how to employ their time with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[Pg xi]</a></span> either pleasure or profit to -themselves or to others.</p> - -<p>There are two ways of living: a man may be casual and simply exist, -or constructive and deliberately try to do something with his life. -The constructive idea implies constructiveness not only about one’s -own life, but about that of society, and the future possibilities of -humanity.</p> - -<p>In pre-human evolution, the blind chances of variation and the blind -sifting of natural selection have directed the course of evolution -and of progress. It is on survival and the production of offspring -that the process has hinged; the machinery is in reality blind, but -these emerge as its apparent ends or purposes. The realization of ever -higher potentialities of living substance has happened, but only as a -secondary result and slow by-product of the main process.</p> - -<p>In human evolution up till the present, the apparent ends and aims -have for the most part and in the bulk of men remained the same; it is -only the methods of pursuing them that have changed. True or conscious -purpose comes in and aids the unconscious biological forces already at -work.</p> - -<p>However, to most men at some time, and to some men at most times, -these purely biological ends and purposes of life become altogether -inadequate. They perceive the door opened to a thousand possibilities -higher than this, all demanding to be satisfied. The realization of -what for want of a better term we can<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[Pg xii]</a></span> call spiritual values becomes -the true end of life, superposed on and dominating the previous -biological values.</p> - -<p>When civilizations and societies are organized so that their prime -purpose is the pursuit of spiritual values, then life will have -passed another critical point in its evolution; as always, what has -gone before is necessary as foundation for what is coming, and the -biological conditions must be fulfilled before the new and higher -edifice can be built; but, as when the mammals superseded the reptiles, -so this change of aim will mean the rise of a new type to be the -dominant and highest form of life.</p> - -<p>This can only come about so far as man consciously attempts to make -it come about. His evolution up to the present can be summed up in -one sentence—that through his coming to possess reason, life in his -person has become self-conscious, and evolution is handed over to him -as trustee and director. “Nature” will no longer do the work unaided. -Nature—if by that we mean blind and non-conscious forces—has, -marvellously, produced man and consciousness; they must carry on the -task to new results which she alone can never reach.</p> - -<p>Mr. Trotter, in his delightful book on the Herd-instinct, draws -a distinction between the stable-minded or resistive and the -unstable-minded or adaptive, and points out how the destinies of -society have usually been entrusted to the former—whence spring our -persecutions of prophets and our neglect of innovating genius. This -will continue so long as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[Pg xiii]</a></span> the accepted belief of the majority is that -there exists a Providence who has assigned every one his proper place, -or even (oddest whim!) ordained the present type of society; so long -as they rely more on authority than experience, look to the past more -than to the future, to revelation instead of reason, to an arbitrary -Governor instead of to a discoverable order.</p> - -<p>The general conceptions of the universe which a man or a civilization -entertains come in large part to determine his or its actions. There -are only two general and embracing conceptions of the sort (though any -number which are not general, and fail because they leave out whole -tracts of reality): in the fewest possible words, one is scientific, -the other unscientific; one tries to use to its fullest extent the -intellect with which we have been evolved, the other does not. The -thread running through most of these essays is the attempt to discover -and apply in certain fields as much as possible of this scientific -conception to several different fields of reality.</p> - -<p>Of these essays, “Progress” has already appeared in the <i>Hibbert -Journal</i>, “Biology and Sociology” in the <i>Monist</i>, “Ils n’ont que de -l’âme” and “Philosophic Ants” in the <i>Cornbill Magazine</i>, “Rationalism -and the Idea of God” in the <i>Rationalist Press Annual</i>, and “Religion -and Science” in <i>Science and Civilization</i>, this year’s representative -of the annual “Unity” series edited by Mr. F. S. Marvin and published -by the Oxford University Press. They have all, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[Pg xiv]</a></span>however, been -considerably revised and enlarged before appearing in the present -volume. I have to thank the proprietors and publishers for kindly -permitting me to reprint these.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Oxford</span>,<br /> <i>April 1923</i>.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">[Pg xv]</a></span></p> - -<h2>CONTENTS</h2> - -<table summary="CONTENTS"> - <tr> - <td>I </td> - <td class="left">PROGRESS, BIOLOGICAL AND OTHER</td> - <td><a href="#Page_3">3</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>II </td> - <td class="left">BIOLOGY AND SOCIOLOGY</td> - <td><a href="#Page_69">69</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>III </td> - <td class="left">ILS N’ONT QUE DE L’ÂME: AN ESSAY ON BIRD-MIND</td> - <td><a href="#Page_107">107</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>IV </td> - <td class="left">SEX BIOLOGY AND SEX PSYCHOLOGY</td> - <td><a href="#Page_133">133</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>V </td> - <td class="left">PHILOSOPHIC ANTS: A BIOLOGIC FANTASY</td> - <td><a href="#Page_177">177</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>VI </td> - <td class="left">RATIONALISM AND THE IDEA OF GOD</td> - <td><a href="#Page_207">207</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>VII </td> - <td class="left">RELIGION AND SCIENCE: OLD WINE IN NEW BOTTLES </td> - <td><a href="#Page_235">235</a></td> - </tr> -</table> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER I.</span> <span class="smaller">PROGRESS, BIOLOGICAL AND OTHER</span></h2> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span></p> - -<p class="center">EVOLUTION: AT THE MIND’S CINEMA</p> - -<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div>I turn the handle and the story starts:</div> -<div class="i1">Reel after reel is all astronomy,</div> -<div class="i1">Till life, enkindled in a niche of sky,</div> -<div>Leaps on the stage to play a million parts.</div> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<div>Life leaves the slime and through all ocean darts;</div> -<div class="i1">She conquers earth, and raises wings to fly;</div> -<div class="i1">Then spirit blooms, and learns how not to die,—</div> -<div>Nesting beyond the grave in others’ hearts.</div> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<div>—I turn the handle: other men like me</div> -<div>Have made the film: and now I sit and look</div> -<div>In quiet, privileged like Divinity</div> -<div>To read the roaring world as in a book.</div> -<div class="i1">If this thy past, where shall thy future climb,</div> -<div>O Spirit, built of Elements and Time!</div> -<div> </div> -<div><span class="smcap">Munich</span>, <i>Jan. 1923</i>.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p> - -<p class="bold2">PROGRESS, BIOLOGICAL AND OTHER</p> - -<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div>“Usus et impigrae simul experientia mentis</div> -<div>Paulatim docuit pedetemtim progredientes.”</div> -<div class="i12">—<span class="smcap">Lucretius.</span></div> -</div></div></div> - -<blockquote><p>“As natural selection works solely by and for the good of each -being, all corporeal and mental environments will tend to progress -towards perfection.”</p> - -<p class="right">—<span class="smcap">Charles Darwin.</span></p> - -<p>“Social progress means the checking of the cosmic process at every -step and the substitution for it of another which may be called -the ethical process.”</p> - -<p class="right">—<span class="smcap">T. H. Huxley.</span></p> - -<p>“It is probable that what hindered Kant from broaching his -theory of progress with as much confidence as Condorcet was his -perception that nothing could be decisively affirmed about the -course of civilization until the laws of its movement had been -discovered. He saw that this was a matter for future scientific -investigation.”</p> - -<p class="right">—<span class="smcap">J. B. Bury.</span></p></blockquote> - -<p>What is the most fundamental need of man? It would be interesting to -conduct a plebiscite of such a question, a plebiscite of the same sort -that was conducted by one of the French newspapers some years ago, -to discover the opinions of its readers as to who was the greatest -Frenchman of the century.</p> - -<p>When I say the most fundamental need of man, I do not mean those basic -needs for food and drink and shelter which he shares with the animals: -I mean the most fundamental to him <i>as man</i>, as an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> organism differing -from all other organisms in the power of thought, in reflection and -self-consciousness. What variety of answers would be given, I dare not -guess; but I hazard the belief that the majority, if the suggestion -were put before them, would agree that his deepest need was to discover -something, some being or power, some force or tendency, which was -moulding the destinies of the world—something not himself, greater -than himself, with which he yet felt that he could harmonize his -nature, in which he could repose his doubts, through faith in which he -could achieve confidence and hope.</p> - -<p>That need has been felt by all those to whom life has been more -than a problem of the unreflective satisfaction of instincts and -desires—however pure those instincts, or beautiful those desires; -it has been felt by all in whom the problem of existence has been -apprehended by intellect and disinterested imagination.</p> - -<p>I say all. There may be rare creatures who, secure in strength of body -and mind and in unhampered unfolding of their faculties, possess a -confidence by which this need is never felt. They are like those whom -Wordsworth drew for us in the “Ode to Duty”:—</p> - -<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div>“There are who ask not if thine eye</div> -<div>Be on them; who, in love and truth,</div> -<div>Where no misgiving is, rely</div> -<div>Upon the genial sense of youth:</div> -<div>Glad hearts! without reproach or blot;</div> -<div>Who do thy work and know it not.”</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p> - -<p>But such are rare; or should we say that their type of mind, though -not uncommon in the earlier years of life, only by the rarest chance -achieves its course without a descent into that vale where the finite -human intellect grapples unequally with infinite problems?</p> - -<p>The need has been felt in all ages and in all countries; and the -answers, the partial satisfactions of the needs which have been found -by the mind of men, are correspondingly diverse.</p> - -<p>Savages have endowed the objects around them, living and inanimate, -with supernatural qualities. At a higher grade of development they -have created gods made with hands, visible images of their fears or -their desires, by whose worship and service they assuaged the urgent -need within their breast. Still later, turning from such crudity, they -became servants and worshippers of unseen gods, conceived under the -form of persons, but persons transcending human personality, beings in -whom was vested the control of man and of the world.</p> - -<p>Up to this point there had been an increase of spirituality in the -constructions by which human thought satisfied its need; none the less, -the ideas underlying the mode of these constructions had not materially -altered. As Voltaire so pungently put it, man had created God in his -own image.</p> - -<p>What remains? there remains to search in the external world, to find -there if possible a foundation of fact for the belief drawn from the -inner world of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> mind, to test the conceptions of a supreme being or -supereminent power against ever more and more touchstones of reality, -until the most sceptical shall acknowledge that the final construction -represents, with whatever degree of incompleteness, yet not a mere -fragment educed to fill a void, however inevitable, to satisfy a -longing, however natural, but the summary and essence of a body of -verifiable fact, having an existence independent of the wishes or -ideals of mankind.</p> - -<p>It was the striving after some such certainty that led Matthew Arnold -to his famous definition of God as “something, not ourselves, which -makes for righteousness.” Dissatisfaction with the assertion that -belief in a very special and undemonstrable form of Divinity was -necessary as an act of faith has, in a large measure, helped the -widespread revulsion against orthodox Christianity. It was the need for -some external, ascertainable basis for belief which led such different -minds as William James and H. G. Wells to approach religion, and in -such diverse ways as in the “Varieties of Religious Experience” and in -“God the Invisible King.” It is this same need which is leading the -representatives of Christianity to lay ever greater stress upon the -reality and pragmatic value of the religious experience, less and less -upon dogmas and creeds.</p> - -<p>It will be my attempt in this brief paper to show how the facts of -evolutionary biology provide us, in the shape of a verifiable doctrine -of progress, with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> one of the elements most essential to any such -externally-grounded conception of God, to any construction which shall -be able to serve as permanent satisfaction of that deepest need whereof -we have spoken.</p> - -<p>Any such construction must take account of many separate parts of -reality. In the first place, it must consider those realities inherent -in the mind of man: his desire for goodness; the sense of value which -all agree is attached to certain experiences of mystics and to certain -religious emotions; his ideals and their importance for the conduct of -life. But in the second place it must consider those realities which -are independent of man and of his mind—the ascertainable body of hard -fact, those things which existed before ever he existed, which would -exist were he to disappear, with which he must struggle as best he may. -Lastly, there is the need for intermediation between the one and the -other reality, between the inner <i>felt</i> and the outer <i>known</i>.</p> - -<p>Mr. Wells,<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" >[1]</a> if you remember, erected a new trinitarianism, which in -broad outlines corresponded with this division. With his particular -construction, I do not in many respects agree. But that some form -of trinitarianism is a reasonably natural method of symbolizing the -inevitable tripleness of inner experience, outer fact, and their -interrelation is obvious enough. In the particular trinitarianism -of Christianity, the reality apprehended to exist behind the forces -of Nature is called the Father, the upspringing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> force within the -mind of man, especially when it seems to transcend individuality and -to overflow into what we designate as the mystical, is called the -Holy Ghost, and the activity, personal or vicarious, which mediates -between the individual and the rest of the universe, reconciling -his incompleteness and his failures with its apparent sternness and -inexorableness, is called the Son.</p> - -<p>Some men lay more weight on one of these aspects than on the others. -I know a clergyman of the Church of England who, on being reproached -during a theological argument with failure to pay sufficient respect -to the doctrine of God the Father, replied: “I am not interested in -God the Father”; and I know intellectually-minded men who wish to -reject the validity of all religious experience because their minds -are so made that they pay more attention to external fact and because -their reason refuses to let them agree with the interpretations of -fact propounded by most religious bodies. But, for a properly balanced -construction, for the finding of something which shall serve not as the -basis of a creed for this or that sect, but of a creed for humanity, of -something which instead of dividing shall unite, we need all aspects.</p> - -<p>The idea of Progress constitutes, as I hope to show, the most important -element in the first part of our construction—that which attempts to -synthesize the facts of Nature; and besides, no inconsiderable portion -of the third, the interrelation of inner and outer.</p> - -<p>Readers of Bury’s interesting book on the Idea of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> Progress<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" >[2]</a> will -perhaps, with me, have been surprised at the modernity of that -conception. He shows how, in antiquity, the idea was never a dominant -one, and further that the adumbrations made of it all lacked some -element without which it cannot be styled progress in the sense in -which that word is used to-day.</p> - -<p>Not indeed till the late Renaissance can we say that the idea of -Progress became in any real sense incorporated with the common thought -of Western civilization. From then to the present it has suffered -many vicissitudes. Starting in the XVIIth century as little more than -a consciousness of the superiority of the present over the past, in -the XVIIIth it changed to a dogma, its adherents claiming that there -existed a “Law of Progress” leading inevitably to the perfectioning -of humanity. In the XIXth century the dogma was questioned, and -thinkers began to put it to the test—the test of comparing theory with -historical fact. A new lease of life, however, was given to the idea of -a law of progress by the evolution theory; but finally, of late years, -there has been a marked reaction, leading not only to a denial of any -such inevitable law, but often to a questioning of the very existence -of Progress in any shape or form.</p> - -<p>It is the business of the philosopher and of the biologist to see -whether this scepticism be justified, and to find out by a more -scientific approach how much of the doctrine of Progress is valid. -To the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> layman it would seem inevitable, once the validity of the -evolution theory was granted, to concede the fact of Progress in some -form or another. If we accept the doctrine of evolution, we are bound -to believe that man has arisen from mammals, terrestrial from aquatic -forms, vertebrates from invertebrates, multicellular from unicellular, -and in general the larger and the more complex from the smaller and -simpler. To the average man it will appear indisputable that a man is -<i>higher</i> than a worm or a polyp, an insect <i>higher</i> than a protozoan, -even if he cannot exactly define in what resides this highness or -lowness of organic types.</p> - -<p>It is, curiously enough, among the professional biologists that -objectors to the notion of biological progress and to its corollary, -the distinction of higher and lower forms of life, have chiefly been -found. I say curiously enough, and yet to a dispassionate observer it -is perhaps not so curious, but only one further instance of that common -human failing, the inability to see woods because of the trees that -compose them.</p> - -<p>That is as it may be. Our best course will be to start by examining -some of the chief objections to the idea of biological progress, in -order to see if they involve errors of thought which we may then avoid.</p> - -<p>The most widespread of all the objections raised may, I think, be -fairly put as follows: “The fundamental attribute of living beings -is adaptation to environment. A man is not better adapted to his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> -environment than the flea which lives upon him as a parasite, or than -the bacillus which kills him, nor is a bird better adapted to air than -a jelly-fish to water; therefore we have no right to speak of one as -higher than the other, or to regard the transition from one type to -another as involving progress.”</p> - -<p>A second class of objector is prepared to admit that there has been -an increase of complexity, an increase in the degree of organization -during evolution, but refuses to allow that increase of complexity -has any value in itself, whether biological or philosophical, and -accordingly refuses to dignify this trend towards greater complexity by -the name of progress.</p> - -<p>Yet a third difficulty is raised by those who ask us to fix our -attention on forms of life like Lingula, the lamp-shell, which, though -millions of years elapse, do not evolve. If there exists a Law of -Progress, they say, how is it that such creatures are exempt from its -operations?</p> - -<p>Finally, a somewhat similar attitude is adopted by those who refuse -to grant that evolution can involve progress when it has, as we know, -brought about well-nigh innumerable degenerations. Granted, for -instance, they would say, that the average Crustacean is in many ways -an improvement upon the simple form of life from which we must suppose -that it arose, yet we know that within the group of Crustacea there are -several lines of descent which have led to the production of parasitic -forms—animals in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> which the activity and complex organization of the -ancestral type has been sacrificed, and as end-product we are presented -with a hateful being, an almost shapeless mass consisting of little -else but over-developed reproductive organs and mechanisms for sucking -nutriment from its unfortunate host. Such a result is revealed to us -in the Crustacean form Sacculina, and is paralleled by countless other -examples in almost every class of animals. The degradation of parasites -and sedentary types is equally a product of the evolutionary process -with the genesis of the ant, the bird or the human being; how then can -we call the evolutionary process progressive?</p> - -<p>These are important objections. Can they be met? In the broadest way -they can and must be met by the only possible method, the method of -Science, which consists in examining facts objectively, and by drawing -conclusions not a priori, but a posteriori. A law of Nature is not (and -I wonder how often this fallacy has been exploded, only to reappear -next day)—a law of Nature is not something revealed, not something -absolute, not something imposed on phenomena from without or from -above; it is no more and no less than a summing-up, in generalized -form, of our own observations of phenomena; it is an epitome of fact -from which we can draw several conclusions. By beginning in this way -from the very beginning, by examining the basis of our mode of thinking -in natural science, only thus are we enabled to see at one and the same -moment how<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> to investigate the question of progress on the constructive -side, and how to neutralize the force of the objections to the idea.</p> - -<p>Questions of fact are simple to deal with. It is indubitable that some -forms of life remain stationary and unevolving for secular periods; it -is equally indubitable that degeneration is widespread in evolution. -These are facts. But we are not therefore called upon to deny the -possibility of progress. To do so would be to fall into the error -of reasoning which we have already condemned. It remains for us to -take these facts into account when examining the totality of facts -concerning organic life, and to see whether, in spite of them, we -cannot discover a series of other facts, a movement in phenomena, which -may still legitimately be called progress. To deny progress because of -degeneration is really no more legitimate than to assert that, because -each wave runs back after it has broken, therefore the tide can never -rise.</p> - -<p>Similarly with the first two objections. If the degree of adaptation -has not increased during evolution, then it is clear that progress -does not consist in increase in adaptation. But it does not follow -that progress does not exist; it may quite well consist in an increase -of other qualities. So with complexity. Complexity has increased, but -increase in complexity is not progress, say the objectors. Granted: -but may there not be something else which has increased besides mere -complexity? </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p> - -<p>No; the remedy for all our difficulties, and indeed the only way in -which we can arrive at the <i>possibility</i> of saying whether biological -progress exists or no, is to adopt the positive method.</p> - -<p>Let us then begin our survey of biological evolution in the endeavour -to find whether or no progress is visible there. To start with, we must -be clear what are the sources of our knowledge on the subject.</p> - -<p>Direct observation of progressive evolution has, of course, not yet -been possible in the period—biologically negligible—in which man has -directed his attention to the problem; and historical record is also -absent. The best available evidence is that of paleontology: here the -relative positions of the layers of the earth’s crust enable us to -deduce their temporal sequence—and naturally, that of the organisms -whose fossil remains they embalm—with a great deal of accuracy.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" >[3]</a></p> - -<p>We can scarcely ever observe the direct transition from the forms of -life in an older to those in a younger stratum, nor can we absolutely -prove their genetic relationship. But in a vast number of cases it is -abundantly clear that the later type of organization is descended from -the former—that a group of forms in the younger stratum had its origin -in one or more species of the group to which the forms in the older -stratum belong. Sometimes, however, as in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> many groups of mammals, the -gaps are few and small, the seriation almost complete. In any event we -have here evidence which, so far as it goes, is perfectly admissible -for the main lines and for many of the smaller branches of evolutionary -descent.</p> - -<p>Unfortunately, it does not go very far—or, we had better say, it is -of restricted application. By the time we find well-preserved fossils -in the rocks, the main groups of the animal kingdom and their chief -subdivisions had been already differentiated, with the one important -exception of the vertebrates; while time, heat, and pressure have -so modified the earlier strata as to destroy the fossil forefathers -of insects, molluscs, crustacea, and the rest, which they must have -contained.</p> - -<p>Within the vertebrate stock, then, we can learn a great deal from -the semi-direct methods of paleontology: but for the history of the -other groups and for their origin and interrelations, we are driven -back upon comparative anatomy and embryology, into another field of -more circumstantial evidence. When, for instance, we find that the -fore-limbs of bat, bird, whale, horse, and man, although so different -in function and in detail of structure, are yet built upon the same -general plan, and upon a plan wholly different from that of the -limbs, say, of a spider or an insect, we must either deny reason and -say that this similarity means nothing; or assume that its cause -is supernatural, outside the province of science, that it is the -expression of some eternal Idea, or some plan of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> a personal creator -(in which case, be it noted, the idea or the plan often appears to -our intellect as unreasonable and indeed stupid); or finally that it -implies community of origin with later divergence of development. When -we are dealing with the smaller sub-divisions of some larger group, -this method too gives us information of the same order of accuracy as -does paleontology: but when we try to understand the relationships -of these larger groups, then we are forced to renounce any claim to -detailed knowledge. In broad outline, however, a great deal still -remains, and this broad outline we can employ for our valuation of the -whole sweep of biological progress, just as we can use the greater -accuracy of vertebrate paleontology and comparative morphology to fill -in the detail within a restricted field of its operation. From these -various evidences, direct and indirect, we can paint for ourselves a -picture of the evolution of life which, in spite of inevitable gaps and -errors, is in its main features adequate and true.</p> - -<p>Let us not be misled by the fact that disputes can and justifiably do -arise over details: as Professor Bateson put it recently<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" >[4]</a>:—</p> - -<p>“If the broad lines do not hold, then we must sink into irrationality -or turn to flagrant supernaturalism.”</p> - -<p>Let us then remind ourselves of some of these broad lines. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p> - -<p>We know that there was a time when the earth, hot and fiery, could -not have been the abode of life. Of the first origins of life we know -nothing and guess little. What we can justifiably surmise is that -the protoplasm of the original organisms was not yet differentiated -into cytoplasm and nucleus, and that sexuality had not yet arisen. -The bacteria, however specialized in other ways, are still in this -primitive condition.</p> - -<p>Later, we can with great probability infer that the independent -units into which the stuff of life was subdivided reached a size -which, though still minute, was at least not beyond or even close to -the limits of microscopic vision; they were further provided with a -nucleus, and occasionally underwent sexual fusion. In other words, they -showed an organization which we call cellular; they were free-living -cells. Such unicellular creatures must have been at one epoch sole -inhabitants of the earth, and diverged into the most manifold types of -structure and modes of life. Such of them as led an animal as opposed -to a plant type of existence would be classified under the Protozoa or -unicellular animals.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" >[5]</a></p> - -<p>The colonial habit gives advantages of increased size and greater -rapidity of motion, of which many<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> Protozoa have availed themselves. A -colonial existence once attained, division of labour, at first between -the germinal and the somatic, later between different types of somatic -units, will be a further advantage. Such organisms, of which we cannot -say definitely whether they are compound aggregates or single wholes, -would represent the most natural link between the unicellular Protozoan -and the rest of the animal kingdom, the multicellular forms or Metazoa. -And indeed such organisms exist at the present day—organisms such as -Volvox, Zoothamnium, Proterospongia, and Myxidium—as adjuvant and -confirmatory of our reasonable faith.</p> - -<p>The multicellular organisms appear to have originated twice over, by -divergent routes. There are the true Metazoa, to which belong all the -higher types, and the Parazoa or sponges, which have never passed -beyond a very primitive type of structure. Both start as simple sacs, -whose walls are formed from two primary sheets or layers of cells. -Leaving sponges out of account, the Hydroid polyps are the simplest -representative of this grade of structure, while some of the Jelly-fish -and Siphonophores have attained the utmost limit of its inherent -possibilities.</p> - -<p>The next great step was the intercalation of a third primary layer -between the other two. The result of this, the so-called triploblastic -type of organization, gives the ground-plan for all subsequent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> -organizations; and later evolution consists mainly in the evolution of -this ground-plan.</p> - -<p>In other words, we can now pass from the consideration of the general -plan of life’s architecture to that of its details. During the next -great tract of time, that which was novel in life (for we must not -be guilty of a <i>petitio principii</i> in yet speaking of “advance” or -“progress”) was brought about in two main ways—by an increase in -the size of organisms, and by an increase in the efficiency of their -working.</p> - -<p>The simplest Metazoa, such as the polyps, as well as the simplest -three-layered forms, such as the free-living flat-worms, are all small, -composed of an amount of material comparable with that contained in a -single one of our hairs. In every group of Metazoa, increase of size is -one of the main features that accompanies specialization, and the more -specialized groups possess a higher average size than the less.</p> - -<p>A jelly-fish against a polyp; a cuttle-fish against a primitive -mollusc; a vertebrate against its chordate ancestor; the giant reptiles -of the late secondary period against their forbears; a horse against -Phenacodus; man against the earliest primates—over and over again does -size increase with the march of time.</p> - -<p>Not only this, but when there occurs aggregation of individuals to -form units of a higher order, as in bees and ants and termites, and in -man himself, there too increase of size in the new units thus produced -is one of the most notable features. Is not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> human history in large -measure the history of the increase in size of social units?</p> - -<p>But size alone is not enough; there is also a definite improvement of -the details of life’s mechanism—partly revealed as improvement in the -efficiency of the parts themselves, partly in the adjustment of the -parts to each other, and their subordination to the needs of the whole.</p> - -<p>It is scarcely necessary to detail the improvements in efficiency of -different organs during evolution: such are universally familiar. But -a few examples will point my moral. The lowest three-layered forms -have no circulatory system; this, rendered necessary later by increase -of size, shows a gradual differentiation of parts in evolution. The -exquisite machinery of our heart is directly descended from a minute -pulsating ventral vessel such as that seen in Amphioxus. Protection and -support are better cared for in insect than in worm, in mammal than in -lamprey. But the most spectacular improvement of function, the most -important of all the directional movements in evolution has been that -affecting the nervous system and the sense-organs associated with it. -Few people who have not gone carefully into the subject realize how -imprisoned and windowless are the existences led by lower forms of life.</p> - -<p>Even such physically well-organized creatures as Crustacea stand at -an amazingly low mental level. The other day I was reading a careful -account of experiments on the behaviour of crabs. The method<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> by which -the sexes recognize each other is so crude that I am not sure whether -it deserves the term recognition at all. Before mating, which takes -place immediately after a moult, the female is carried about for some -time in the claws of the male. The mature males will attempt to lift -up and carry off any members of the same species, male or female: but -the only ones which will permit themselves to be thus carried about are -females just before moulting. Hence by a general instinct to lift any -members of the same species on the part of the males, and on the part -of the females an instinct to allow themselves to be lifted when in -the physiological condition which precedes moulting, the required end -is brought about. But of any mental operation such as is involved in -sex-recognition in man or any other mammal, there is no evidence.</p> - -<p>Fish, to take another example, possess associative memory; they can -learn. But they learn very slowly, and learn only the simplest things. -The jump from their powers of memory to those of a dog, who can be -trained comparatively quickly to carry out complicated tricks, is as -great as the further jump from the powers of a dog to those of a man -capable of learning a page of print by heart in two or three readings.</p> - -<p>The first organs connected with mind to become elaborated are the -organs of sense: but such <i>receptor</i> organs are useless to their -possessor, however elaborate, unless put into relation with proper -<i>effector</i> <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>organs—organs for action, whether locomotor or secretory. -So that the first steps are the elaboration of sense-organs, the -increase of efficiency of muscles and glands, and, equally essential, -the construction of an improved “<i>adjustor system</i>,” whereby the -stimulus falling on the sense-organ may be translated into action and -into the right kind of action. This adjustor mechanism is the central -nervous system. Most of the further history of organisms may be summed -up in one phrase—the evolution of adjustor mechanisms.</p> - -<p>At first, it is chiefly of importance to be brought into relation with -more and more of the happenings of the outer world, to be able to see -and hear and feel and smell more and more delicately; and to react upon -the outer world more and more efficiently and powerfully, to be able -to move and to handle matter more quickly and with finer and finer -adjustment.</p> - -<p>But unless the adjustor mechanism be improved, this process soon tends -to a limit. I may illustrate my meaning by a simple supposition. -Suppose an organism capable of very little beyond reflexes and -instincts and with but a scanty dose of associative power: of what -conceivable use to it would be a telescope or a telephone? Man obtains -a biological advantage from such accessory sense-organs in that, when -thus apprised of events at a distance, he is enabled to plan out -courses of action to meet the events which he imagines are going to -overtake him: but both planning and imagination are entirely functions<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> -of an adjustor mechanism, and without such a mechanism, great -enlargement of sensory power would only result in an organism reacting -too often and unnecessarily to events in its environment.</p> - -<p>There is, in fact, an obvious limit to the perfection which can be -attained by receptor and effector organs. Striated muscles, the -modelling of the skeleton and joints for speed in a horse or greyhound, -the eye and ear of higher vertebrates, the mammalian sense of smell—no -doubt it would be possible for life to have produced more perfect and -more efficient mechanisms—but not, apparently, mechanisms <i>much</i> -more perfect or <i>much</i> more efficient. They stand near the limit of -biological efficiency.</p> - -<p>There thus comes a time when it is impossible or extremely difficult -to give an organism advantage in the struggle by improving its -sense-organs or its locomotor system, or indeed any of its general -physical construction, whereas it is still possible to confer the most -important advantages upon it by means of improvements in the adjustor -mechanism, improvements which involve and imply improvements of mind.</p> - -<p>This stage was reached by mammals and birds quite early in the Tertiary -period; and one of the most striking spectacles of biology, revealed -in the fossils of successive strata, is to see Mind coming into its -own after this epoch. Over and over again a group of animals is seen -to appear and spread, only to be extinguished and replaced by another -type<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> which to all outward appearance is similar, no better adapted -to the conditions of life. But the two types differ in one point: the -later possessed a larger brain, and so, from all analogy, a better -mind. Or, to take another example, man differs from the lower animals -in no notable <i>physical</i> specialization except the upright posture.</p> - -<p>After this critical point in the evolution of organisms was reached, -further development has consisted chiefly in the development of mind: -and this has meant, from the objective, purely biological standpoint, -the possibility of summing-up ever more and more power and fine -adjustment of response in the present, in the single act.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" >[6]</a></p> - -<p>The first main function of the improved adjustor mechanism was to make -ever more complicated actions possible; but this again tended speedily -to a limit. The next step was to make it possible for the past to -act in the present. Through associative memory, present behaviour is -modified by past experience. What this has meant to organisms can be -realized if we reflect that certain terms which can justly be applied -to a mammal or a bird have no real meaning if applied to lower forms. -If we speak of a cunning wolf or a wary crow, we imply that their life -has taught them new qualities; but it is nonsense to talk of a cunning -crab, and, though we might properly ascribe wariness to a trout, I -would not like to speak of a wary Amoeba. In the same<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> way we can -justifiably say that one dog is affectionate, another intelligent: -but to speak of an affectionate earthworm or an intelligent snail has -no more proper significance than it would be to say that a dog was -intellectual or religious.</p> - -<p>Quickness of learning then became of importance; but so long as the -faculty of generalizing is absent, associative memory, although -liberating organisms from the prison of a fixed and inherited -mental constitution, still pins them down to the accidental and the -particular; an organism can only learn to react to those particular -experiences which chance has decreed that it should have had.</p> - -<p>The next and last salient step in evolution was a double one. Which -of its two parts came first is hard to say; probably they acted -reciprocally throughout. This step was, on the one hand, the attainment -of the power of generalization—of reason, concept-formation, or what -you will—and on the other the origin of tradition, which in its turn -was made possible by the acquisition of speech and of a gregarious mode -of life. By these means, the human species and its evolving ancestors -were gradually enabled, first, to free experience ever more and more -from the accidental and to store what was essential; and, secondly, to -bring gradually more and more of the experience of the whole race to -bear upon the present problem, and to plan further and further ahead, -and on a larger and larger scale.</p> - -<p>This has meant, among other things, that for the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> first time in -biological history there has been an aggregation (in the technical -biological sense) of minds. Over and over again in evolution does -the process of aggregation appear.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" >[7]</a> It is an advantage, for at one -jump it lands life on a new level of size, with new possibilities of -division of labour and specialization. It appears in the aggregation -of Protozoa to form the colonial ancestor of all higher, many-celled -forms. It appears again on this new level in the aggregation of hydroid -polyps, of polyzoa, of ascidians, and especially in the beautiful -floating Siphonophora, in which the polyp-like units (themselves -historically aggregates of cells) have become so subordinate in -relation to the whole that they can often scarcely be recognized as -individuals, and the individuality of the aggregate is much more marked -than that of its components. It appears in a new way in the Termites -and in the social Hymenoptera—ants, bees, and wasps. Here the bonds -uniting the members of the aggregate are not physical but mental, -their sense-impressions and instincts; but the principle is identical -throughout. Finally in man we have not merely aggregation of physical -individuals held together by mental bonds, but aggregation of minds as -well as of physical individuals.</p> - -<p>In many mammals and birds, each generation can extend its influence -on to the next, and the experience of the parents is in part made -available to the offspring. But never until the origin of speech was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> -it possible for a whole series of generations to be linked together -by experience, never could experience be cumulative, never could one -mind know what another mind, remote in time, had been thinking or -feeling. Biologically, evolution since the time of origin of this new -process has consisted essentially in the enlargement and specialization -of aggregations of minds, and the improvement of the tradition which -constitutes the mode of inheritance for these aggregations—that -tradition which, like Hugo’s “Nef magique et suprême” of human destiny, -will eventually have “fait entrer dans l’homme tant d’azur qu’elle a -supprimé les patries.”</p> - -<p>It will, I hope, have been clear, even from the few examples which -I have given, that there has been a main direction in evolution. At -the close of the paper I shall try to point out that since motion in -this direction has led to the production of an increasing intensity -of qualities which we are unanimous in calling valuable, since in -other words the application of our scale of values tends in the same -direction as has the march of evolutionary history, that therefore -we are justified in calling this direction progressive, and indeed -logically compelled to give to motion in this direction a name which, -like progress, implies the idea of value.</p> - -<p>I shall therefore, from now on, use the term <i>biological progress</i> to -denote movement in the direction which we have sketched in outline, -and shall shortly proceed to define more accurately. In so doing, I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> -perhaps beg the question, to be proved I hope later, as to whether the -observed direction is progressive: but I no longer beg the question of -whether evolution is a directional process. However we may argue on -the facts, the facts remain: and the facts are that there has been an -increase in certain qualities of organisms, both physical and mental, -during geological time.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile, let it be remembered, the simplest forms have survived side -by side with the more complex, the less specialized with the more -specialized. Even when we can trace a causal relation between the rise -of one group and the decay of another, as with the mammals and birds on -the one hand, and the reptiles on the other, even then numbers of the -defeated group continue to exist. Thus, in broad terms, evolution is -not a transformation, be it progressive or no, of the whole of living -matter, but of a part of it.</p> - -<p>I will endeavour to sum up, in brief, what seem to me the salient -points of that process, a sketch of which, inevitably hasty and -inadequate, I have just tried to give.</p> - -<p>During the time of life’s existence on this planet, there has been -an increase, both in the average and far more in the upper level, of -certain attributes of living things.</p> - -<p>In the first place there has been an increase in their size, brought -about by two methods, first by the increase of size of the units of -life themselves (cells,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> metazoan individuals, communities), secondly -by their aggregation; and this has been accompanied by a (very roughly) -parallel increase in the duration of life.</p> - -<p>Next, there has been an increase in their complexity; and this in its -turn depends upon the fact that a division of labour has been brought -about between the parts of organisms, each part becoming specialized -for greater efficiency in the performance of some particular function. -In the fewest words, the separate bits of machinery of which organisms -are composed have become more efficient.</p> - -<p>In the third place, there has been an increase in the harmony of these -parts, and consequently in the unity of the whole. Delicate mechanisms -for co-ordination have been developed, and arrangements whereby one -portion becomes dominant over the rest, and so a material basis for -unification is given.</p> - -<p>In the fourth place, there has been an increase of self-regulation. -The outer environment changes from month to month, from hour to hour. -The more complex products of evolution are in high degree exempt from -the consequences of these changes, through being the possessors of a -constant internal environment which, beyond the narrowest limits, it is -most difficult to alter.</p> - -<p>Fifthly, there has been an increase in the possibility of bringing -past experience to bear on present problems. At the base is the power -of modifying normal reactions with repetition; then come some<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> simple -degrees of memory; then associative memory, as in birds and mammals, -for whom most reactions are not given in the inherited constitution, -but must be learnt; then rational memory, in which the power of -generalization liberates life from blind dependence upon the local and -the accidental; and finally tradition, whereby the amount of experience -available to the developing race is not constituted merely by the -isolated and limited experiences of its members, but by their sum. More -and more of the past becomes directly operative in the present; further -and further into the future can the aim of the present extend.</p> - -<p>Finally we can conclude with a high degree of certainty that the -psychical faculties—of knowing, feeling, and willing—have increased -in intensity, and also in their relative importance for the life of the -individual organism.</p> - -<p>We have condensed our summary into these six general statements; if -we wish to reach a still more general form, the most general form -possible, we can redistil it thus: During the course of evolution in -time, there has been an increase in the control exerted by organisms -over their environment, and in their independence with regard to it; -there has been an increase in the harmony of the parts of organisms; -and there has been an increase in the psychical powers of organisms, an -increase of willing, of feeling, and of knowing.</p> - -<p>This increase has not been universal; many organisms have remained -stationary or have even <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>regressed; many have shown increase in -one particular but not in others. But the <i>upper level</i> of these -properties of living matter has been continually raised, their average -has continually increased. It is to this increase, continuous during -evolutionary time, in the average and especially in the upper level of -these properties that, I venture to think, the term biological progress -can be properly applied.</p> - -<p>Used thus it is no more an a priori or an undefined concept. It is a -name for a complicated set of actual phenomena, and if, with progress -thus defined, we were to speak of a law of progress in evolution, we -should be using the term law in a perfectly legitimate way, as denoting -a generalization based on observed facts, and not as pre-supposing any -vitalistic principle of perfectibility, any necessary and mysterious -tendency of organisms to advance independently of circumstances.</p> - -<p>The gas laws state that the pressure of a gas kept at constant volume -increases in a particular way with increase of temperature. Now the -pressure of a confined gas depends on the rate at which its particles -bombard the walls in which they are contained, and the speed at which -they are travelling. In a gas whose temperature is raised, many -particles will, at any given moment, be travelling more slowly than the -average rate when it was cooler, many even which had been travelling -fast may now be travelling slowly. None the less, the average speed of -all the particles is greater; and this and nothing else is what<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> with -perfect justification we sum up as our <i>law</i>.</p> - -<p>In biological evolution, some organisms degenerate, some remain -stationary, but the average of certain properties, and more especially -their upper level, increases; and this tendency for certain properties -to become more marked, this and nothing else, is what we sum up and -generalize, again with perfect justification, as the law of biological -progress.</p> - -<p>The mechanism of biological progress demands a word: for it is -noticeable that a mere fact, however well attested, makes a very -different kind of impression from a fact explained and brought into -relation with the rest of our knowledge. The impression is either less -powerful; or else, an explanation being sought for, an erroneous one is -found. It was Darwin’s great merit that, not content with the piling up -of evidence in favour of the reality of Evolution, he at the same time -advanced a theory which made it at least possible to understand how -Evolution could have come to pass as a natural process. The effect was -multiplicative on men’s minds, not merely additive, for facts are too -bulky to be lugged about conveniently except on wheels of theory.</p> - -<p>The fact of biological progress has struck many observers. Some have -been content to believe that the single magic formula of “Natural -Selection” would explain it adequately and without further trouble, -forgetting that there must be at least some points of difference -between a natural selection producing a degenerate type and natural -selection leading to <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>progress. Some biologists have lumped it, -together with all other evolutionary processes which seem to show -us a development along predetermined lines, under the head of -<i>orthogenesis</i>—the (hypothetical!) tendency of organisms to unfold -just one type of hidden potentiality. Bergson has been particularly -struck with it: refuses to allow that it can have anything to do with -Natural Selection or any determinist process, and ascribes it to his -<i>élan vital</i>.</p> - -<p>Here, as so often elsewhere, Bergson reveals himself as a good poet but -a bad scientist. His intellectual vision of evolution as a fact, as -something happening, something whole, to be apprehended in a unitary -way—that is unsurpassed. He seems to see it as vividly as you or I -might see a hundred yards race, holding its different incidents and -movements all in his mind together to form one picture. But he then -goes on to give a symbolic description of what he sees—and then -thinks that his symbols will serve in place of analytic explanations. -There <i>is</i> an “urge of life”; and it is, as a matter of fact, urging -life up the steps of progress. But to say that biological progress is -explained by the <i>élan vital</i> is to say that the movement of a train -is “explained” by an <i>élan locomotif</i> of the engine: it is to fall -into the error, so often condemned in scientists by philosophers, and -ridiculed in both by satirists, of hanging or at least disposing of a -difficulty by giving it a long name.</p> - -<p>Let us think of the condition of life on earth at any given moment of -her evolution. Certain <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>possibilities have been realized by her—others -have not. To take a trenchant example, before the Carboniferous or -thereabouts, the vertebrates had not realized their possibilities of -terrestrial existence—nearly half the globe’s surface lay waiting to -be colonized by backboned animals. The earth’s surface was conquered -then—but the air remained unsubdued before the mid-Secondary. In every -period, there must be not only actual gaps unfilled in the economy of -nature—such and such an animal is without parasites, such and such -a hot spring or salt lake is without tenants; but also improvements -can be made in existing types of organization—a tapeworm could be -more firmly attached, a salt-lake shrimp could tolerate an even higher -concentration of brine.</p> - -<p>These two sorts of possibilities really overlap. For instance, an -increased efficiency of vision must be an improvement in pre-existing -structures and creatures; it also involves the conquest of new regions -of environment, and so in a real sense the occupation of a new -biological niche.</p> - -<p>In any case, the changes which would confer advantage in the struggle -for existence may take place in any direction—with, or against, or at -right angles to the stream of progress. By means of those which march -with that stream, the upper level of life’s attainment is raised. -But the struggle still goes on: and again, starting from this new -condition, there will be variations in every direction which will have -survival value, and some of these will be progressive;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> and so the -upper level will be once more raised.</p> - -<p>The process will take time, for, whatever theory of variation we may -hold<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" >[8]</a>—the old idea of small continuous variations; or that of large -mutations big enough to produce new species at one jump; or the most -probable theory of numerous small mutations—they one and all must -grant that the largest variation occurring at one time in a living -species is infinitesimal in comparison with the secular changes of -evolution.</p> - -<p>There will further be a premium upon progressive changes, since a -progressive change will generally land its possessor in virgin soil, -so to speak; if not in an actually new physical environment, then in a -biologically new situation. The placental mammal occupies the same dry -land as did the wonderful reptilian types of the Secondary epoch. But -constant temperature and embryonic nutrition within its mother provide -delicately adjusted conditions in the early phases of development which -in their turn enabled a more elaborate and more delicately responding -brain machinery to be constructed in development, and so advanced their -possessors on to new shores of control and independence.</p> - -<p>There will thus be a constant biological pressure (to use a term -which, though still symbolic, a mere analogy, is less misleading and -question-begging than <i>élan vital</i>) tending to push some of life on -to new levels of attainment, new steps in progress, <i>because</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> any -variations in that direction will have selection value, a selection -value above the ordinary. And the process will be a gradual one, -because variations are not very large; so that life no more realizes -all potentialities of progress at once than did the United States or -any other new country receive a uniform population over all its extent -as soon as it was discovered, but had its people move in from the -coasts in a regular and orderly advance.</p> - -<p>There are plenty of parallels from human affairs. Indeed, the -evolutionist can often gain valuable light on his subject, on what -one may call the economics of the process, by turning to study the -development of human inventions and machines. There, although the -ways in which variations arise, and the way they are transmitted, are -different from those of organic evolution, yet the type of “pressure,” -the perpetual struggle, and the advantage of certain kinds of variation -therein—these are in essence really similar.</p> - -<p>What could be more striking than the parallel between the rise of the -mammals to dominance over the reptiles, and the rise of the motor -vehicle to dominance over that drawn by horses?</p> - -<p>In both cases, a comparatively long period in which the new type is in -a precarious and experimental stage, only just managing to exist, of -small size and rare occurrence, and in no real sense a serious rival to -its old-established competitors. Then, suddenly, a change. It reaches -a level at which it can effectively compete with them. What happens? -In the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> case both of man-made machine and evolving vertebrate group, -there is first a sudden increase in numbers of the new, a corresponding -decrease in numbers of the old type. The upper level of size of the -new type also begins to increase, and it begins to split up into a -great number of differentiated sub-types. Some of these sub-types -become extinct, others, on the other hand, are gradually improved, -while still others undergo such rapid change as to merit the style of -new sub-types. The upper level of size, complexity, and efficiency -increase, both in animal and machine.</p> - -<p>It is as well to remember that survival-value means only what it says. -A variation with survival-value helps its possessors to survive: it -is not the best possible variation of the kind. In the developing -motor-car, the substitution of four for one or two cylinders was a -great improvement. It had “survival-value”; and not until the majority -of cars came to be four-cylindered was the additional advantage of -six or eight cylinders large enough to bring them into existence as -dominant types.</p> - -<p>To the interrelated evolution of carnivore and herbivore, again, -leading to increase of size and speed in both, of wariness in one, of -tooth and claw in the other, we have again a close parallel in the -interrelated evolution of armour-plating and of projectiles. Here -again the process is gradual. We can further see that the sudden -“development” of full modern armour on the first iron-clad would -have been <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>actually disadvantageous, since it would have reduced -its speed relatively to other less heavily protected ships, without -conferring any corresponding benefit in the way of defence against the -comparatively inefficient projectiles of the day. Only when the range -and piercing power of the projectiles increased did increase of armour -become imperative.</p> - -<p>To resume our pressure analogy, the natural increase of all organisms -leads to a “biological pressure.” So long as a species remains -unchanged, so long must it stay subjected to the full force of this -pressure. But if it changes in such a way that it can occupy a new -niche in environment, it is expanding into a vacuum or a region of -lower pressure. Natural increase soon fills this up to the same level -of pressure, and conditions thus become favourable for expansion into -new low-pressure areas previously out of reach of the normal range -of variation. Variation towards such “low-pressure” regions may be -progressive, retrogressive, or neutral: but it is obvious that at -each stage of evolution there will always be a low-pressure fringe, -representing a considerable fraction of the “low-pressure” area within -the range of variability, the occupation of which would be biologically -progressive.</p> - -<p>Thus from the well-established biological premisses of (1) the tendency -to geometrical increase with consequent struggle for existence, -(2) some form of inherited variability, we can deduce as necessary -consequence, not only the familiar but none the less<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> fundamental -fact of Natural Selection, but also the almost neglected fact that -a <i>certain fraction</i> of the guiding force of Natural Selection will -inevitably be pushing organisms into changes that are progressive.</p> - -<p>This will of course be true only so far as the general conditions of -the environment remain within certain limits: it is probable that too -great reductions of temperature or moisture on the surface of the -earth would lead to a gradual reversal of progress before the final -extinction of life. Up to the present, however, it is clear that such -conditions have not occurred, or, possibly, have occurred only for -short periods. The general state has been one in which steady, slow -progress has been achieved. Progress, like adaptation, is in pre-human -evolution almost entirely the resultant of blind chance and blind -necessity.</p> - -<p>What corollaries and conclusions may be drawn from the establishment -of the fact of biological progress? In the first place, it permits us -to treat human progress as a special case of a more general process. -Biologically speaking, the human species is young—not perhaps still -in infancy, but certainly not yet attained to any stable maturity. -The conception, common enough in much traditional thought, that man -as a species is old, far removed from all pristine vigour and power, -is demonstrably untrue. The genus Homo has not yet adapted itself -to the new conditions and the new possibilities arising out of the -acquisition of reason and tradition. Its <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>history so far is a record of -experiment after experiment. From a period so short and so empirical -it is impossible to deduce any general law of progress. In certain -respects, as we shall see more in detail later, there has been advance; -in others, the species has been stationary. But whether humanity in -this or that particular has progressed is for the moment comparatively -immaterial. Humanity is part of life, a product of life’s movement; and -in life as a whole there is progress.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" >[9]</a></p> - -<p>What is more, there was progress before man ever appeared on the earth, -and its reality would have been in no way impaired even if he had never -come into being. His rise only continued, modified, and accelerated a -process that had been in operation since the dawn of life.</p> - -<p>Here we find, in the intellectual sphere at least, that assurance which -men have been seeking from the first. We see revealed, in the fact of -evolutionary progress, that the forces of nature conspire together to -produce results which have value in our eyes, that man has no right -to feel helpless or without support in a cold and meaningless cosmos, -to believe that he must face and fight forces which are definitively -hostile. Although he must attack the problems of existence in a new -way, yet his face is set in the same direction as the main tide of -evolving life, and his highest destiny, the end towards which he has so -long perceived that he must strive, is to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> extend to new possibilities -the process with which, for all these millions of years, nature has -already been busy, to introduce less and less wasteful methods, to -accelerate by means of his consciousness what in the past has been the -work of blind unconscious forces. “In la sua volontade è nostra pace.”</p> - -<p>For this is one of the most remarkable facts of evolution—that -consciousness, until a very late period, has played in it a negligible -part. Indeed the rise of consciousness to become a factor of importance -in evolution has been one of the most notable single items of progress. -Darwin gave the deathblow to teleology by showing that apparently -purposive structures could arise by means of a non-purposive mechanism. -“Purpose” is a term invented to denote a particular operation of the -human mind, and should only be used where a psychological basis may -reasonably be postulated. On the other hand, a result can be attained -by conscious purpose without the waste of time and of living material -needed by the indirect method of natural selection; and thus the -substitution of purposed for unpurposed progress is itself a step in -progress.</p> - -<p>As another corollary of our concept of progress, it follows that we -can and should consider, not only the direction of any evolutionary -process, but also its rate.</p> - -<p>An evolutionary process, if it is to be considered progressive, must -have a component in one particular direction—a direction which we have -already <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>defined. But this is not all; for even if it be moving in the -right direction, and yet be moving extremely slowly, it may, if it have -any interaction with a much more rapid progressive movement, actually -exert a drag on this; its relative motion—relative to the main current -of progress—will be backwards, and we may have to class it as the -reverse of progressive. For example, the interaction of carnivore and -herbivore, pursuer and pursued, led during the development of the -vertebrates to the evolution of much that was good—speed, strength, -alertness, and acuity of sense—and of many noble types of living -things. But with the advent of man, different methods have been -introduced, new modes of competition and advance; and the tiger and -the wolf not only cease to be agents of progress in its new form, -but definitely stand in its way and must be stamped out, or at least -reduced to a condition in which they can no longer interfere as active -agents in evolution.</p> - -<p>Some such considerations as these will help perhaps to resolve various -difficulties of ethics—how, for instance, that which seems good to me -may seem evil to another. Even the good, if it be a drag on the better, -is evil. Expressed thus, the proposition is a paradox; but expressed in -terms of direction and relative speed, it is at once intelligible.</p> - -<p>But the test of any such general biological theory as I have outlined -will be its application to human problems. And here too, I venture to -say, the value<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> of biological method is apparent. What we ask, and -rightly ask, is whether in the laws of biological progress we can find -any principle which we can apply directly to guide us in devising -methods for human progress.</p> - -<p>I do not propose to follow the example of many rather hasty -philosophers and biologists, who have thought that, whenever the -study of lower organisms permitted the promulgation of a biological -law, such law can be lifted bodily from its context and be applied -without modification to human affairs. Man is an organism—but a very -exceptional and peculiar organism. Any biological law which epitomizes -only facts about the lower creatures is not a general biological law, -for general biological laws must take account not only of plants and -animals, but of man as well. In practice, however, the simplest method -is to frame our biological laws without considering man, and then to -see in what way they must be modified if they are to be applied to him.</p> - -<p>Man differs biologically from other organisms in the following main -ways. First, he has the power of thinking in concepts; in other words, -his power of learning by experience is not always conditioned directly -by the accidents of his own life, as is the case with animals endowed -only with associative memory, but he can, by reaching the general from -the special, attain to the possibility of dealing with many more, and -more complicated, eventualities. Next, by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> means of speech, writing, -and printing, he has developed a new mode of inheritance.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" >[10]</a> Each -community, and indeed humanity as a whole, transmits its peculiarities -to later ages by means of tradition, using that word in its largest -sense. Physical inheritance of the same type as in all higher animals -and plants is the necessary basis, but the distinctive characters -of any civilization are based on this new tradition-inheritance. -Thirdly, the type of mind which has been evolved in man is much more -plastic—a much more elastic and flexible mechanism than any tool -previously evolved by life for handling the problems of existence. As -a consequence of this we have the substitution of general educability -for specific instincts. For the power of performing comparatively -few actions smoothly and without trouble, there is exchanged the -possibility of a vastly increased range of action, but one which -has to be learnt. As another consequence, man has come by the -power—impossible to any other organism—of leading what is to all -intents and purposes a multiple existence. It is for this very reason -difficult to fit man into many of the ordinary biological categories. -The physical and mental structure and the mode of life of even the -highest of the animals are for all practical purposes a fixed quantity. -An ant, for all its delicacy of adjustment, is little less than a -sentient cog shaped to fit in just one way into the machinery of the -community; a dog, for all his power of learning, is tied down and -imprisoned within a rigidity and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>narrowness of bodily and mental -organization difficult for us to imagine.</p> - -<p>Man passes freely from one aggregation to another. He can -change his nation or his city; he can belong to a dozen -organizations—biologically speaking, can be aggregated in a dozen -different ways—and play a different part as unit in each. He can -follow one profession in the morning, another at night, and be a -hobby-horse rider in between.</p> - -<p>This plastic mind has endowed him with a new biological possibility. -He can do what no other organism can—he can be both specialized and -generalized at one and the same time.</p> - -<p>In biology, the aggregation of units to form units of higher grade has -been always followed by division of labour among the units; and this -division of labour has, in all infrahuman history, been made possible -only by an irreversible specialization.<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" >[11]</a> A soldier-ant is a soldier, -and there its possibilities end. It cannot do what the worker or -the queen can do. A muscle-cell, because it has gained the power to -contract, is cut off from other possibilities; it cannot secrete, or -digest, or carry messages. The aggregate of nerve-cells which makes the -physical basis of mind is held fixed to its post, incapable of turning -to other functions.</p> - -<p>It follows that the units of all such aggregates are subordinate to -the whole—they have lost their independence, and can often no longer -be considered as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> individuals at all, except historically. But in man, -none of these things hold. A man can for half his day be the merest -cog, subordinate in every detail of his action to the needs of the -community, but for the other half be himself, a full and complete -individuality, making the community serve his own ends and needs. For -him, aggregation does not mean complete and irreversible subordination; -his specialization is reversible, and indeed his potentialities as an -individual actually increase with the increased individuality of the -aggregate to which he belongs.</p> - -<p>Bearing these differences in mind, we may turn to consider how our -doctrine of progress helps us in studying humanity.</p> - -<p>At the outset we must guard ourselves against the idea that human -society has reached any high level of biological individuation. I may -perhaps quote from what I have written elsewhere: “If we were to draw a -parallel between primitive types of society and some primitive mammal -such as a duck-billed platypus, and to compare the course which we -hope society will in time accomplish with what has been accomplished -in the progress of the mammalian type from a creature resembling the -platypus up to man, with what creature should we have to compare the -existing state of human communities? I venture to say that we should be -flattering ourselves if we were to fix upon the dog.”</p> - -<p>Then we must remember that Natural Selection in man has fallen chiefly -upon groups, not upon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> individuals, and differences in the nature and -organization of human groups are determined chiefly by what we can -best sum up as differences of tradition in the widest sense of the -term. The later history of mankind, from a period long antedating -written records, has been one of the rapid rise and equally rapid -extinction, not only of one group-unit after another, but of one type -of group-unit after another. It is further obvious at first glance that -the group-units, the types of society which are at present dominant, -are far from perfect and far from stable, and indeed that they are -evolving, with speed of change hitherto unsurpassed, towards new and -unknown forms.</p> - -<p>When the mammalian type first became dominant on the globe—at the -transition between the Secondary and Tertiary periods—a somewhat -similar history was passed through. The new type of organization gave -its possessors marked advantages over other animal types: but the full -potentialities of the mammal (excluding man) were not realized until -well over half of the Tertiary period had elapsed, and man was being -prepared in the womb of circumstance. The Pliocene sees the triumph -of the perfected types of mammal: the preceding Miocene, broadly -speaking, sees the first rise of these new types, while the Eocene and -Oligocene show us a rapid rise and as rapid extinction of variation -upon variation on the original theme.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" >[12]</a> With man, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>however, only the -beginnings of a similar process have as yet come to pass.</p> - -<p>Further, we must distinguish clearly between the different ways in -which progress may be operative in man. In the first place it can -appear, as we have just pointed out, in the organization of the -communities to which he belongs and on which natural selection seems -mainly to act. Secondly, it can appear as a raising of the <i>average</i> of -certain qualities among the individuals composing those communities. -And thirdly, it can appear as a raising of the <i>upper level</i> of -attainment in those qualities, in the appearance of individuals -biologically higher than any that have previously existed.</p> - -<p>This last point may be first dealt with. It has often been urged as -an argument against the doctrine of progress that we can trace no -advance in the capabilities of the individual man throughout history, -and it has even been asserted that no such advance has occurred during -pre-history. To this latter criticism there is the obvious reply that -at some period there was an origin of human from non-human organisms, -and that during the period of transition at least (and probably for a -considerable time afterward) there naturally must have been a raising -of the upper level of attainments, and still more of possibility. The -main point at issue, however, is not to be gainsaid. It appears<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" >[13]</a> -that comparatively early in the evolution of man, there appeared, in -some<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> branches of the stock, a type of mental organization which has -not yet been improved upon. An individual possessing it is capable, -when developing in proper environment (the most important single -elements of which are the organization and tradition of the community -to which he belongs) of attaining to possibilities which, measured in -terms of the potentialities of any previous organism, are wellnigh -boundless. He can survey the whole of mankind, penetrate the future -with prophecy, bring the gamut of experience within a work of art, -discover the laws by which the universe operates. Judged thus, Goethe -is no greater and no less great than Leonardo, Shakespeare than Dante -or Æschylus, Darwin than Pasteur, Kant than Plato.</p> - -<p>The best type of human mind operating to the best advantage, is -introduced to possibilities so vast in comparison with its paltry span -of existence that it can never realize more than a fraction of them. -Furthermore, since the incidence of natural selection has fallen, from -long before historical time, upon the community and its traditions far -more than upon the individual, and since the conditions under which -the possibilities of the individual can be even qualitatively realized -have been rarely forthcoming, it is not surprising that the level of -possibility itself has not been raised. Indeed, only too often there -has been reversed selection, and the exceptional man has suffered from -his exceptional endowments.</p> - -<p>There is no theoretical objection whatever to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> idea that new -types of mind, new modes of thought, new levels of attainment, could -be reached by life: the mental difference between low types of men -and men of genius is almost as great as that between man and ape. -The difference in practical intelligence between a hen, a dog, a -chimpanzee, and a man is largely a difference in the complexity of the -situations which can be grasped as a whole so that the right way out -is adopted as the result of this unitary comprehension.<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" >[14]</a> There is -no reason to doubt that other types of mental mechanism are possible -which would make our grasp of complex situations appear pitiful and -hen-like in its limitations, which would enable their possessors to -<i>see</i> and solve in a flash where we can only grope and guess or at best -calculate laboriously and step by step. But this will not take place, -first until the community-environment is made as favourable as possible -for such development, and secondly until there is begun a deliberate -biological encouragement of new possibilities of intuition, say, or of -communication between mind and mind.</p> - -<p>As regards the second point, the raising of the average as opposed to -the upper level of attainment, not much need be said. That part of -our civilization which can be thought of as progressive is largely -concerned with this very thing—with making it possible for men to -realize in larger measure their inherent possibilities. Further, in -so far as there exists<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> selection within the community, it largely, -under present conditions, encourages qualities such as intelligence -and initiative, which are biologically progressive. And finally, when -Eugenics shall become practical politics, its action, so far as we can -see, will be at first entirely devoted to this raising of the average, -by altering the proportion of good and bad stock, and if possible -eliminating the lowest strata, in a genetically mixed population.<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" >[15]</a></p> - -<p>Since, however, the main stress in human evolution has been upon the -community and upon tradition, it is here that we shall expect to find -most definite evidences of progress, and it is here that we do in fact -find them.</p> - -<p>We have in the first place the increase of the size of units, familiar -to us already in lower forms. This, however, is tending to a limit, -which will be attained when the present competition of sovereign states -has been replaced (as, if we can read the future from the past, it -inevitably will be) by some form of federation covering the globe. -We find an immense increase of control over environment—a theme so -hackneyed as to need no labouring. We find an almost equally striking, -if less spectacular, increase in independence. Man becomes less and -less at the mercy of the forces of nature and of other organisms, -attains much more to self-regulation. This has depended upon increased -efficiency of “organs”—here the extra-organismal organs we call -tools and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>machines; and upon increased rapidity and certainty of -communication both within and between units. There has been an almost -overwhelming increase (displaying too not a uniform but an accelerated -motion) of knowledge, of the possibilities of acquiring new knowledge, -and of what may be called the “group-memory”—the power of storing -and rendering knowledge available, and this in its turn brings about -a huge increase in the size of the environment with which man either -physically or mentally comes into contact.</p> - -<p>As regards increase of harmony or co-ordination, human communities -have advanced but little, although in the increase of powers of -communication there has been laid the foundation for such possibility.</p> - -<p>That this lack of progress is partly due to the extreme rapidity of -change in type of unit and of the units’ increase in size, is not -doubtful; a further ground for it, however, is to be found in the fact -that human societies present a new biological problem, in so much as -it is impossible, man being what he is, to solve the relationship of -individual and community, of smaller and larger unit, in the simple -way in which it has always been solved before—by specialization and -subordination of the individuals.<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" >[16]</a> The early development of codes of -law, codes of ritual, and codes of morals represents the first <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>attempt -at a solution of the problem: the modern rise of arbitration as a -method of settling disputes between whole units and large groups within -units is another important step in the same direction. Nevertheless, it -is here that the most drastic change of method will have to be brought -into being if man’s development is to continue progressive.</p> - -<p>There is, however, a weighty criticism of the validity of human -progress. Granted that human science and invention have made enormous -strides, that knowledge has increased and convenience multiplied—is -<i>man</i>, the living, feeling, personal human being, any the better in -essentials for all of this—has it not merely made life more complex at -the expense of its depth, more rapid at the expense of its tranquillity -and suavity? This is especially obvious in the field of art. It is -impossible to maintain that any one of a certain number—a hundred, or -perhaps a thousand—of great poets, painters, sculptors, or musicians -is greater or has achieved finer things than any other of the number. -What is more, in most arts—notably sculpture, painting, and poetry, -the possibilities of expression and achievement do not increase, and -once a certain pitch of skill is reached, tend to extinguish themselves -in technique and virtuosity. When this happens, new ideas generally -come upon the scene and work up again from a relatively primitive to a -complicated technique along a more or less different path—and so on -and so forth <i>ad infinitum</i>.</p> - -<p>This is not so true of architecture, and still less so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> of music. In -intellectual matters it is clearly not true of mathematics, where -each advance provides the foundation for the solution of more complex -problems, nor, similarly, of much of science. But even in this -intellectual domain, where the accumulation of knowledge is so evident, -where the increasing difficulty and complexity of the problems soluble -and solved is so remarkable—even here the individual achievement can -scarcely be properly said to increase, certainly not the individual -merit or the individual satisfaction. Newton’s achievement was no less -splendid because to-day any fourth-rate mathematician can use the -calculus, nor Euclid’s for that his discoveries can be explained to -every schoolboy; while for Harvey to discover the circulation of the -blood or for Dalton to demonstrate the particulate nature of matter -was certainly no slighter task than that needed to show the reality of -internal secretion or to discover the infra-atomic world of electrons. -The task occupied all their powers, its accomplishment satisfied them; -and the powers themselves have not increased—only the ways in which -men have learned to use them.</p> - -<p>This criticism has been partly dealt with before. We have seen that -the present organization of human mind introduces its possessor to -a practical infinitude of possibility. We have also seen that there -is no theoretical obstacle to be seen at present to an increase of -human powers, be it in range of comprehension, intensity of feeling, -or brilliance of intuition.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> More to our present purpose is the reply -that, whereas in all these ways the inherent capabilities have not -increased, yet the opportunities of realizing these capabilities have -for the bulk of the population increased—in particular, for instance, -of gratifying the more complex and the more intellectual emotions, -with the multiplication of theatres, of books, of pictures, of -concerts. Here, for once, the average has advanced more than the upper -level. Whatever overstress and maladjustment the complexity of modern -civilization has brought with it, it has certainly made it easier for -more men and women to realize more of their potentialities now than a -thousand years ago, and far more than a hundred thousand years ago.</p> - -<p>There are, then, these facts to set on the credit side of Progress’ -balance-sheet. It is easy enough to see items on the debit side, and -indeed to be so horrifiedly fascinated by it as not to have eyes -for anything else. Human history is in one view but a long record -of suffering, oppression, and folly. Slavery, torture, religious -persecution, war, pestilence and famine, the greed of those who -possess power, the dirt and sloth and ignorance of those who do -not—the elements of the picture keep on recurring, if not in the old -forms, then in new ones. Pain, disease, disappointment, and death are -inevitable. Even when a civilization seems to be progressing, there -always comes a time when it passes its zenith and topples through -decay or defect to ruin. How<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> is it possible to speak of progress -when at this present moment there are vast poverty-stricken and slum -populations with all the great nations, and when these same great -nations have just been engaged in the most appalling war in history?</p> - -<p>It is a formidable indictment: but I venture to assert that it can be -met by the same argument with which, in the realm of biology, was met -the argument from degeneration.</p> - -<p>Such facts show at once that any idea of inevitable or of universal -progress is untenable, the product of an irrational idealism which -prefers its own desires to reality. They show further that, up to -the present, suffering and pain on the one hand, and on the other -degeneration in a certain number of individuals, are as universal and -apparently inevitable in human as in animal evolution. But they do not -show that some sort of progress may not have occurred—not necessarily -the kind of progress that some of us would like, not necessarily as -rapid as could be desired, but yet indubitably and solidly Progress. We -have seen that in the hundreds of thousands of species which constitute -life, that which has been increased most obviously is the upper level -of certain qualities—primitive forms have persisted, degenerate forms -have arisen side by side with and in spite of the steady improvement in -the highest types. This has happened in man also.</p> - -<p>The upper level of control and of independence in human group-units, -and in a certain number of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> fortunate individuals, has obviously -increased; but there are the slums, there are the drab lives of -thousands in great cities, there are poverty, degeneracy, and crime. -All that we can say is that to many at least it seems theoretically -possible that man should be able to reduce the amount of degeneration, -waste, and pain, to increase the changes to be summed up as progressive.</p> - -<p>The future Golden Age of Millenniarism is as impossible a notion -as the past Golden Age of Mythology, and more demoralizing. Bury, -with pardonable sarcasm, speaks of the result hoped for in it as “a -menagerie of happy men ... in which the dynamic character of history -disappears.” But once we have accepted (as the great majority accept) -life as somehow worth living, the belief in progress asserts only -(though there is much in that “only”) that life may be made more worth -living to a larger proportion of people, although effort and failure -always will and always must be conditions of its operation. As Goethe -said, “Let humanity last as long as it will, there will always be -hindrances in its way, and all kinds of distress, to make it develop -its powers.”</p> - -<p>It is important to remember, what we have already noted, that the -history of mankind is largely the history of competition between -group-units or communities. When rare communities have been able to -escape from this race of competition and have deliberately devoted the -energy and resources thus set free to better community-regulation and -an <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>improvement in the lives of the individuals composing them, then, -like Denmark, they have moved rapidly along a path of real progress. -Once an efficient federation of communities has come into being, -Progress can knock at the door with some chance of being admitted. In -general, it is enough for our present purpose to have shown that some -modicum of progress has occurred within the species Man; and that some -of the characteristics which most saliently mark him off from other -organisms—his powers of generalization and his self-consciousness—are -in themselves germs, potentialities of great progress in the future, -because through them blind biological progress can become economical, -foreseeing, and conscious of herself.</p> - -<p>There remains for me only one task—to investigate more closely the -relation of that fact of evolutionary direction which we have called -biological progress, to our ideas of value. What we have found is that -there exists a certain general direction of movement in the evolution -of living things; towards the increase of certain of their properties. -But when we make a further analysis, we find that movement in this -direction is movement towards a realization of the things judged by the -human mind to have value. It is movement towards an increase of power, -of knowledge, of purpose, of emotion, of harmony, of independence. -Increases in these faculties combine, once a certain stage in mental -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>development is reached, to mean the embracing of ever larger syntheses -by the organism possessing them—practical syntheses, as in business, -or exploration, or administration; intellectual, as in philosophy or in -the establishment of scientific laws; emotional, as in love or in the -passion for nature; artistic, as in a symphony or great drama. These -capabilities are greater in man than in the higher animals, in the -higher animals than in the lower, more and more windows being closed -and powers pruned away as we descend the scale.</p> - -<p>It is immaterial whether the human mind comes to have these values -<i>because</i> they make for progress in evolution, or whether things which -make for evolutionary progress become significant <i>because</i> they happen -to be considered as valuable by human mind, for both are in their -degree true. There is an interrelation which cannot be disentangled, -for it is based on the fundamental uniformity and unity of the cosmos. -What is important is that the human idea of <i>value</i> finds its external -counterpart in an actual historical <i>direction</i> in phenomena, and that -each becomes more important because of the relationship.</p> - -<p>Much of what I have written will appear obvious. But if it has been -obvious, it will be because I have here attempted to focus attention on -some of the corollaries of a single fundamental truth—so obvious that -it often escapes notice, but so fundamental that its results cannot but -fail to obtrude themselves<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> upon us. I mean the unity of phenomena—not -merely the unity of life, put on a firm footing for all time by Darwin, -though that is for my purpose the most important, but the unity of -living and non-living, demanding a monistic conception of the universe. -For the present, the stellar host (possibly, as recent astronomy -seems to assert, assembled not in one system but in a multiplicity of -universes, floating through space like a shoal of jelly-fishes in a -Mediterranean bay)—the stars seem alien from our life, alien or at -best neutral. All that links us to them is that we are built of the -same stuff, the same elements.</p> - -<p>But the last half-century has at least enlarged our view so that we -can perceive that we, as living things, are not alien to the rest of -life—that we march in the same direction, and that our hostility to -and struggles with other organisms are in part but the continuation -of the old struggle, in part the expression of the fact that we have -acquired new methods for dealing with the problems of existence.</p> - -<p>The origin of life itself, and its movement in time—both these are -found to face in the same direction as ourselves. St. Paul wrote that -all things work together for good. That is an exaggeration: but they -work together so that the average level of the good is raised, the -potentialities of life are bettered. In every time and every country, -men have obscurely felt that, although so much of the world, taken -singly, was evil, yet the clash of thing with thing,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> process with -process, the working of the whole, somehow led to good.</p> - -<p>This feeling is what I believe is clarified and put on a firm -intellectual footing by biology. The problems of evil, of pain, of -strife, of death, of insufficiency and imperfection—all these and -a host of others remain to perplex and burden us. But the fact of -progress emerging from pain and battle and imperfection—this is an -intellectual prop which can support the distressed and questioning -mind, and be incorporated into the common theology of the future.</p> - -<p>Dean Inge, in his Romanes Lectures,<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" >[17]</a> quotes Disraeli’s caustic -words, “The European talks of progress because by the aid of a few -scientific discoveries he has established a society which has mistaken -comfort for civilization,” and quotes them with approval. He bitterly -criticizes what we may sum up as Millenarianism (although this after -all is but a crude and popular aspiration after what the Christian -would call the Kingdom of God on earth). And, after exalting Hope as a -virtue, closes with the somewhat satirical statement, “It is safe to -predict that we shall go on hoping.”</p> - -<p>He has been so concerned to attack the dogma of inherent and -inevitable progress in human affairs that he has denied the fact -of progress—whether inevitable we know not, but indubitable and -actual—in biological evolution: and in so doing he has<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> cut off -himself and his adherents from one of the ways in which that greatest -need of man which we spoke of at the outset can be satisfied, from by -far the greatest manifestation in external things of “something, not -ourselves, that makes for righteousness.”</p> - -<p>One word more, and I have done. There remains in some ways the hardest -problem of all. The greatest experiences of human life, those in which -the mind appears to touch the Absolute and the Infinite—what of -their relation to this notion of progress? They are realized in many -forms—in love, in intellectual discovery, in art, in religion; but the -salient fact about all is that they are felt as of intensest value, -and that they seem to leave no more to be desired. Doubtless when we -say that at such moment we touch the Infinite or the Absolute we mean -only that we touch what is infinite and absolute in comparison with our -ordinary selves. None the less, the sense of finality and utter reality -attendant on them is difficult to bring into line with our idea of -progress.</p> - -<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div>“I saw Eternity the other night</div> -<div>Like a great ring of pure and endless light,</div> -<div>All calm, as it was bright.”</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>The Dean too has felt this so strongly that he has made it the keystone -of his argument. As he says, “Spiritual progress must be within the -sphere of a reality which is not itself progressing, or for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> which in -Milton’s grand words ‘progresses the dateless and irrevoluble circle -of its own perfection, joining inseparable hands with joy and bliss in -over-measure for ever.’”</p> - -<p>I would only suggest that for many to attain to such experiences, -which in truth seem to constitute the highest satisfaction at present -conceivable for men on earth, it is necessary to organize the community -and to plan out life in such a way that human beings, released from the -unnecessary burdens of hunger, poverty, and strife, are not only free -but helped and urged to attain to such Delectable Mountains. Spiritual -progress is our one ultimate aim; it may be towards the dateless and -irrevoluble; but it is inevitably dependent upon progress intellectual, -moral, and physical—progress in this changing, revolving world of -dated events.</p> - -<h3>BIBLIOGRAPHY</h3> - -<p>(It was felt that the citation of a few works bearing upon the -subject-matter of the essays might help those desirous of pursuing the -subject further; but to more than this the lists make no claim.)</p> - -<blockquote><p>Babcock and Clausen, ’18. “Genetics in Relation to Agriculture.” -New York, 1918.</p> - -<p>Bateson, ’22. “Science.” (N.S.) 1922.</p> - -<p>Bergson, H., ’11. “Creative Evolution.” London, 1911.</p> - -<p>Bury, J. B., ’20. “The Idea of Progress.” London, 1920. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span></p> - -<p>Carr-Saunders, A. M., ’22. “The Population Problem.” Oxford, 1922.</p> - -<p>Castle, <i>et al</i>, ’12. “Genetics and Eugenics.” Chicago, 1912.</p> - -<p>Conklin, E. G. “Heredity and Environment in the Development of -Man.” London, 1922.</p> - -<p>Darwin, C. “The Origin of Species.”</p> - -<p>—— —— “The Descent of Man.”</p> - -<p>Dendy, ’14. “Outlines of Evolutionary Biology.” London, 1914.</p> - -<p>Hobhouse, L. T., ’19. “Development and Purpose.” London, 1919.</p> - -<p>Huxley, J. S., ’12. “The Individual in the Animal Kingdom.” -Cambridge, 1912.</p> - -<p>—— T. H. “Evolution and Ethics.” Collected Essays, vol. ix. -London, 1906.</p> - -<p>Inge, W. R., ’20. “The Idea of Progress.” Romanes Lectures. -Oxford, 1920.</p> - -<p>James, W., ’02. “Varieties of Religious Experience.” London, 1902.</p> - -<p>Köhler, W., ’21. “Intelligenzprüfungen an Menschenaffen.” Berlin, -1921.</p> - -<p>Lloyd Morgan, C, ’20. “Animal Behaviour.” London, 1920.</p> - -<p>Loeb, J., ’18. “Forced Movements, Tropisms, and Animal Conduct.” -Philadelphia, 1918.</p> - -<p>Lull, ’17. “Organic Evolution.” New York, 1917.</p> - -<p>M’Dougall, W., ’11. “Body and Mind.” London, 1911.</p> - -<p>Osborn, H. F., ’10. “The Age of Mammals.” New York, 1910.</p> - -<p>Shipley and MacBride, ’20. “Zoology.” Cambridge, 1920. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span></p> - -<p>Washburn, M. F., ’13. “The Animal Mind.” New York, 1913.</p> - -<p>Weismann, A., ’04. “The Evolution Theory.” 2 vols. London, 1904.</p> - -<p>Whetham, W. C. D., ’12. “Heredity and Society.” London, 1912.</p> - -<p>Woodward, A. S., ’98. “Outlines of Vertebrate Paleontology.” -Cambridge, 1898.</p></blockquote> - -<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> - -<p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1">[1]</a> Wells, ’17.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2">[2</a> Bury, ’20.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3">[3]</a> This holds good, naturally, for any given spot on the -earth’s crust: once the contained fossils have been carefully examined -from a number of series of strata, they enable us to correlate the ages -of the members of the different series.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4">[4]</a> Bateson, ’22.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5">[5]</a> There is a certain school of biologists who object to -describing Protozoa as cells. This to others appears pedantic. But, -whether or no they are right in the matter of terminology, the fact -which I am here emphasizing remains, viz., that Protozoa had to be -aggregated before the Metazoa, or many-celled animals, could arise.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6">[6]</a> See Lloyd Morgan, ’20; Washburn, ’13; Köhler, ’21.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7">[7]</a> Huxley, ’12.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8">[8]</a> See Babcock and Clausen, ’19.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9">[9]</a> See Conklin, ’22.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10">[10]</a> See Carr-Saunders, ’22.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11">[11]</a> See Huxley, ’12.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12">[12]</a> See Woodward, ’98; Osborn, ’10.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13">[13]</a> See Carr-Saunders, ’22.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14">[14]</a> See Köhler, ’21.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15">[15]</a> See Whetham, ’21; Castle, ’12.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16">[16]</a> See the second essay of this volume for fuller discussion -of this point.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17">[17]</a> Inge, ’20.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>II</span> <span class="smaller">BIOLOGY AND SOCIOLOGY</span></h2> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span></p> - -<p class="center">PROGRESS</p> - -<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div>The Crab to Cancer junior gave advice:</div> -<div class="i1">“Know what you want, my son, and then proceed</div> -<div class="i1">Directly sideways. God has thus decreed—</div> -<div>Progress is lateral; let that suffice.”</div> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<div>Darwinian Tapeworms on the other hand</div> -<div class="i1">Agree that Progress is a loss of brain,</div> -<div class="i1">And all that makes it hard for worms to attain</div> -<div>The true Nirvana—peptic, pure, and grand.</div> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<div>Man too enjoys to omphaloscopize.</div> -<div class="i1">Himself as Navel of the Universe</div> -<div class="i1">Oft rivets him—until he asks his Nurse,</div> -<div>Old Nature, for the truth; and she replies:</div> -<div>“Look back, and find support; you march with Life’s main stream.</div> -<div>Look on—be proud; her future lies within your dream.”</div> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<div><span class="smcap">London</span>, <i>Feb. 1923</i>.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span></p> - -<p class="bold2">BIOLOGY AND SOCIOLOGY</p> - -<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div>“Come out into the light of things;</div> -<div>Let Nature be your teacher.”</div> -<div class="i6">—<span class="smcap">W. Wordsworth.</span></div> -</div></div></div> - -<blockquote><p>“In matters that really interest him, man cannot support the -suspense of judgment which science so often has to enjoin. He is -too anxious to feel certain to have time to know. So that we see -of the sciences, mathematics appearing first, then astronomy, -then physics, then chemistry, then biology, then psychology, -then sociology—but always the new field was grudged to the new -method, and we still have the denial to sociology of the name of -science.”—<span class="smcap">W. Trotter</span>, <i>Instincts of the Herd in Peace -and War</i>.</p></blockquote> - -<p>There are many facile comparisons to be drawn between the facts of -biology and of sociology. The most obvious is that between a whole -civilized community and one of the higher animals. Shakespeare -employed an age-old fable in Menenius Agrippa’s Tale of the Belly -and the Members in <i>Coriolanus</i>. With Darwin, and the establishment -of evolutionary biology on a sound footing, matters took a new turn. -Man was now seen to be connected with the rest of life not merely by -analogies of his own mind’s weaving, but by the living bonds of genetic -descent; and it was at once perceived that a more rigid force than had -hitherto been suspected might inhere in the comparisons <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>between State -and Organism. For, as Spencer argued, was not the State in a true sense -an organism—a single biological unit composed of individual human -beings just as a metazoan animal was a single biological unit composed, -in the first instance, of individual cells? Further, the investigation -of the evolutionary process seemed to reveal certain general laws of -its march: beings of the same original constitution, exposed to the -environmental forces of the same planet, had reacted in similar ways, -developing along parallel lines, and arriving at similar types of -organization as end-result. Thus it might reasonably be supposed that -we should find the same general organization and mode of development in -one type of organism as in another, in human society as in a vertebrate.</p> - -<p>On these bases, Spencer and his followers drew elaborate comparisons -of the two, and apparently believed that they were reaching the -same degree of accuracy as that found in comparative anatomy when -they compared the circulatory system of a mammal with the transport -facilities of a State, or drew parallels between the brain and the -cabinet.</p> - -<p>It was speedily seen, however, that such generalizations were so broad -and vague as not to be of much service: that the resemblances were in -fact often no more than symbolical or metaphorical, instead of being -based upon detailed similarity of constitution or of evolutionary -development. With<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> this, evolutionary theorizing on sociological -matters fell somewhat into disrepute. The earlier jubilant certainty -gave place to later doubt; and the half-century whose beginnings had -roused Haeckel and Herbert Spencer to their imaginative flights closed -suitably enough with that remarkable document, T. H. Huxley’s Romanes -Lecture, in which the greatest protagonist of Darwinism confesses -to seeing between man and the rest of the cosmic process, in spite -of man’s genesis from that same cosmic process, an insuperable and -essential opposition, a difference of aim or direction which had turned -the original bridge into a barrier.<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" >[18]</a></p> - -<p>As a result, not only did the particular comparison between society -and an organism fall into disrepute, but also all attempts to draw -far-reaching conclusions from biology to human affairs.</p> - -<p>But the original contention still remains, and is logically -unassailable. Man is an organism descended from lower organisms; his -communities are composed of units bound together for mutual good in -a division of labour in the same way as are the cells of a metazoan: -he can no more escape the effects of his terrestrial environment than -can other organisms. There <i>is</i> therefore reason to suppose that the -processes of evolution in man and man’s societies on the one hand, and -in lower organisms on the other,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> must have something important and -indeed fundamental in common, something which if we could but unravel -would help us in the study of both.</p> - -<p>The correlation of biology with sociology is important not only in -itself, but also as part of a more general correlation of all the -sciences. The correlation of the sciences is of particular importance -to-day for a double set of reasons. The rise of evolutionary biology -and of modern psychology have not only changed our outlook on specially -human problems, but have altered the whole balance, if I may so put -it, of science. There was a time when the basic studies of physics -and chemistry seemed not only basic but somehow more essentially -scientific than the sciences dealing with life. Distinctions were -drawn between the experimental and the observational sciences—often -half-consciously implying a distinction between accurate, scientific, -self-respecting sciences and blundering, hit-or-miss, tolerated bodies -of knowledge. Biological phenomena are now, however, seen to be every -whit as susceptible of accurate and experimental analysis; and indeed -to present so many problems to the physicist and chemist that in fifty -years or so, I venture to prophesy, the wise virgins in those basic -sciences will be those who have laid in a store of biological oil.</p> - -<p>But the main point is this—the study of evolution, of animal behaviour -and of human psychology makes it clear that in the higher forms of -animals at least we are dealing with a category not touched on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> at all -by the physicist and chemist—the category of mind and mental process. -Sir Charles Sherrington, with admirable lucidity, drew for us, in his -recent address to the British Association, the problem of the relation -between mind and matter as it presents itself to the biologist.</p> - -<p>The great change that has come over science in the last half century, -or so it seems to me, is the recognition that mind is not to be -explained away as a mere epiphenomenon, but is to be studied as a -phenomenon. From this point of view, biology will always be the -connecting link between physico-chemical science on the one hand, and -psychology on the other. There is every reason to suppose and no reason -to doubt that life, which we know to be composed of the same material -elements and to work by the same energy as non-living matter, actually -arose from it during the evolution of this planet. There is, in the -behaviour of the lower organisms, nothing which by itself would make us -postulate mind: but in the higher insects, molluscs, and vertebrates, -the last in particular, mental process is not only clearly present, but -clearly of great biological importance; and finally the mind of man, -according to innumerable converging lines of evidence, has evolved from -the mind of some non-human mammal.</p> - -<p>The principle of continuity makes us postulate that this new category -of phenomena has not sprung up during the course of evolution -absolutely <i>de novo</i>, but that it is in some sense universally present -in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> all phenomena. It is merely that we have not yet found a method -for the direct detection of mental processes as we have, say, for -electrical processes; but something of the same general nature, the -same category as mind must, if we wish to preserve our scientific -sanity, our belief in the orderliness of the world, be present in lower -organisms and in the lifeless matter from which they originally sprang.</p> - -<p>In the present state of our knowledge, the study of physics and -chemistry can be pursued without any reference to mental processes. But -the study of biology cannot: and that is one reason why the centre of -gravity of science as a whole is shifting—it is shifting for exactly -the same reason that the centre of gravity of a house shifts during its -construction—because the foundations have to be built first.</p> - -<p>Our second reason is as follows. Biology is once more the link between -root and flower, between physics and chemistry and human affairs, in -regard to evolution. I say evolution: it would be better to broaden the -idea by saying the directional processes to be seen in the universe. So -far as a main direction is to be observed in physics and chemistry, it -is, as all authorities are agreed, towards the degradation of energy -and a final state in which not only life but all activity whatsoever -will be reduced to nothing, all the waters of energy run down into -a single dead level of moveless ocean. Biology, on the other hand, -presents us with the spectacle of an evolution<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> in which the main -direction is the raising of the maximum level of certain qualities -of living beings, such as efficiency of organs, co-ordination, size, -accuracy and range of senses, capacity for knowledge, memory and -educability, emotional intensity,—qualities which in one way or -another lead to a more efficient control by the organism over the -external world, and to its greater independence.</p> - -<p>A direction towards more mind is visible; and this development of -greater mental powers has been in all the later stages the chief -instrument of acquiring control and independence. More and more -of matter is embodied in living organisms, more and more becomes -subservient to life.</p> - -<p>Thus, while in physics and chemistry we see a tendency towards the -extinction of life and activity, in biology we see a tendency towards -more life and more activity; and this latter tendency is accompanied -and largely made possible by the evolution of greater intensity of -mental process—of something, that is to say, of which we cannot as yet -take account in physics and chemistry.</p> - -<p>The biologist may well ask himself the question—“Is it not possible -that this evolving mind, of whose achievements on its new level in -man we are only seeing the beginning, may continue to find more and -more ways of subordinating the inorganic to itself, and that it may -eventually retard or even prevent the attainment of this complete -degradation of energy prophesied by physico-chemical science?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> Is it -not possible that this great generalization only applies to phenomena -in their purely material aspect, and that when we learn to detect and -measure the mental aspects of phenomena we may find reason to modify -the universal applicability of this law of degradation?” We do not know -the answer to that question: but it is clearly a legitimate and useful -question to ask. In any event, we constatate two chief directions in -the universe; that seen in biology is in many ways opposed to that seen -in physics and chemistry; and both must be taken into account.</p> - -<p>I have spent, I fear, a great deal of time on what will appear to many -as very irrelevant prolegomena. But the complete breakdown of the -older views about nature and man, of the philosophies and theologies -based not on observation but on an authority which is no authority, on -unverifiable speculation, on superstition, and on what we would like to -be so rather than on what happens to be so—the breakdown of all the -commonly accepted basis for man’s view of himself and the universe, has -made it necessary to go back to fundamentals if we are to see where -we stand. Secondly, the progress of the biological and psychological -sciences, as I have already pointed out, has considerably altered the -outlook of those who pin their faith to the newer or scientific view -of nature, the view which attempts constantly to refer speculations -to reality, and to build on foundations which have been tested by -experiment.</p> - -<p>The orthodox evolutionary view was that <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>phenomena received in some -degree an explanation if their origin from simpler phenomena could be -demonstrated. As a matter of fact, reflection makes it clear that such -an explanation is never complete. It is a very incomplete explanation -of the properties of water to discover that it is composed of oxygen -and hydrogen; or of those of humanity to discover that it is derived -from lower forms of life. A precisely similar mistake is made by most -psycho-analysts, who consider that an “explanation” of adult psychology -is given by tracing in it effects of the events of childhood. In all -such cases it is true that analysis is helped, but we are by no means -exempted from further study of the later (and more complex) phenomena -in and for themselves. Just as adult psychology is qualitatively -different in various respects from childish psychology, so is man -qualitatively different from lower organisms. Very few attempts have -been made to carry over conceptions derived from sociology into -biology.<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" >[19]</a> But the converse, as we have seen, has often been true, -and numerous writers—largely because purely biological are simpler -than human phenomena—have been obsessed with the idea that the study -of biology as such will teach us principles which can be applied -directly and wholesale to human problems.</p> - -<p>What we have just been saying shows us the correct path. Through -psychology and biology, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>sociology can become attached to the general -body of science; and in so doing it can both receive and give. Since -man is but a single species of organism, and, biologically speaking, -a very young one; since moreover he presents a peculiar type of -organization, it is clear that the broad principles underlying -physiology and evolution can best be studied on other organisms and -later applied to man. On the other hand, man is the highest existing -organism; thus a study of the causes to which he owes his pre-eminence -will be important as adding to and crowning the principles derived -from non-human biology. Furthermore, not only are man’s mental powers -on a different level from those of other animals, but psychology can -at present make by far its greatest contributions by a study of human -mind, so that the psychological side of biology will for the present -derive its chief information from man.</p> - -<p>Our first affair, therefore, is to see in what important respects -man is qualitatively unlike the rest of the organic world; then to -investigate what general rules or principles apply equally to him and -to the others; and finally to see what corrections, so to speak, must -be made before these principles can be applied to the one or to the -other.</p> - -<p>The qualitative difference between man and other organisms is a -cardinal fact with orthodox biology has tended to slur over or to -neglect, whereas philosophy has too often tried to magnify it unduly -so as to make man frankly incommensurable with his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> lower relatives, a -creature not only unique but disparate.</p> - -<p>Man is obviously and undoubtedly an organism of the same general nature -as other organisms. He possesses the same general system of organs, -working in the same way as a dog, a horse, a bird, a crocodile, or -a frog; he passes through the same type of developmental cycle; he -is built on the same detailed plan as other mammals; and numerous -indications betray his descent from a particular branch of the -mammalian stock.</p> - -<p>But in his mode of life and type of social organization he is unique. -All detailed comparisons between the communities of man and those of -bees and ants are as unprofitable in the working-out as they are easy -in the making. It is futile to direct the sluggard or any other human -being to the ant, since the whole physical and psychical construction -of ants is different from that of man, the whole organization of their -communities from that of his.</p> - -<p>His mode of life is unique because his psycho-neural mechanism is built -on a new plan, new modes of connection between parts of the brain being -associated with new possibilities of mind. Let us briefly run over the -biologically most important points in which he differs from the lower -organisms.</p> - -<p>In the first place, he is capable of speech, and possesses a true -language—not a mere repertory of sounds or signs associated with -different states of mind, as in some higher organisms, but a language<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> -comprising special symbols for particular external objects, and -thus making it possible to have a much more detailed knowledge and -classification of the outer world. In the second place, he can frame -abstract ideas or concepts, and is thus enabled to extract the general -kernel from the husk of innumerable separate and different particulars. -As a result of these two faculties, he possesses what we may call a -new, accessory form of inheritance. True biological inheritance takes -place by means of the reproductive cells. In some birds and mammals, -the behaviour of the young is modified by what they learn from their -parents, so that they profit by the experience of their elders; -however, this profiting by experience is not cumulative, but must be -repeated afresh in each generation. In man, on the other hand, speech -and writing make it possible to construct a continuous tradition, by -means of which experience may be actually accumulated from generation -to generation. There are thus two forms of inheritance in man, two -hereditary streams—biological inheritance, by means of germ-cells or -detached portions of the organism, in which favourable mutations may -be accumulated by selection, and “experience-inheritance,” by means -of tradition, in which useful experience may be accumulated by the -activity of mind. By means of tradition-inheritance, man is virtually -enabled to “inherit acquired characters”; thus the environment in -which the latter stages of his development are passed through, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> -consequently his adult self, the end-product of that development, can -be altered far more rapidly than in any other organism. Finally, it -is possible, as is being increasingly realized, thus to accumulate -experience relating to the alteration of biological inheritance, and so -eventually to substitute conscious purpose for blind natural selection -in man’s future evolution.</p> - -<p>Next point: by means of speech, tradition, and invention, man has -been enabled to extend his biological environment—in other words, -that part of the cosmos with which he stands in relation—till it has -reached an enormously greater size than that of any other organism. -He is learning ever more facts about the celestial bodies, studying -stars that are at an inconceivable distance from him. He is able to -travel at will to all parts of the globe. He can penetrate by means of -tradition to remote periods of the past: as Mr. Wells has forcibly put -it, a modern Englishman can know more of the world in the Classical -Epoch than could the most learned Greek or Roman. And even when he can -no more get into contact with ideas, he can still unravel facts: flint -implements help him to the history of man, fossils to that of life, -rocks to that of the globe, stars to that of the solar system. In time, -as well as in space, his environment enlarges to a size that is for -practical purposes infinite, whereas no other organism can penetrate -beyond its own memories, or, at most, do more than profit by those -of the generation immediately before<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> it. Professor Keyser,<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" >[20]</a> in a -suggestive article, has characterized this unique attribute of man by -calling him “the time-binder.”</p> - -<p>Speech and reasoning, with all their consequences, have only been -rendered possible through another important qualitative change in the -human brain, which in its turn has led to other new potentialities of -life being realized in man and in man alone—its flexibility.</p> - -<p>In some of the lowest forms of life, such as Paramecium, there are but -one or two possible modes of reaction—reactions which it attempts in -response to any one of the myriad changes that may occur in the outer -world. As we ascend the scale, we find two chief types of alterations: -in the first place an increase in the number of hereditarily-given -modes of reaction, and in the second an increased power of “learning,” -of altering behaviour in adjustment to experience. In the insects, the -first is chiefly in evidence. Although many insects undoubtedly can -profit by experience to a limited degree, yet most of their behaviour -is instinctive, in the sense that it unrolls itself automatically and -efficiently in the absence of previous experience or of any possible -instruction. In the vertebrates, on the other hand, we see as we pass -from the lower to the higher groups a definite, steady increase in the -power of learning by experience, from the fish that takes weeks to -associate a given colour with a given event such as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> feeding-time, to -the dog or monkey capable of learning elaborate tricks after a couple -of trials. But even in the most “intelligent” of birds or mammals, the -power of image-formation is very probably absent,<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" >[21]</a> and the power -of concept-formation, of generalizing, certainly so. This fact (quite -apart from the absence of tradition, although this too operates in the -same direction) means that the associations of animals can only be -arbitrary and individual: a rook in one country (to choose a somewhat -far-fetched example) may happen to associate danger with fire-arms, one -in another with bows and arrows. Life, for the animals, is a cinema, -different for each individual, in which one event may be associated -with another in the most diverse and haphazard ways. With the advent -of the human type of brain, however, experience can be sorted out and -properly docketed; the mere cinematographic record is converted into a -drama full of significance, the diary into a card-index. By this means, -and by tradition, it is possible for man to obtain a much more accurate -and more complete grasp of the relationships of the objects that -compose the outer world than is possible for any other animal. Through -knowledge, as ever, comes power: and as a result, man has been enabled -to invent tools and machinery, and so to enlarge enormously his control -over his environment. Just as his “range,” in the zoogeographical -sense, is extended to an unprecedented degree both in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> space and time, -so tools represent, biologically speaking, an extension of himself -as an operator. While man is using a tool, he and the tool together -constitute but a single unit in the struggle for existence. As various -writers have put it, tools and machines are temporary organs of man, -which have the additional merit of being replaceable if lost or damaged.</p> - -<p>But this is not all: the great power of association possessed by man, -together with his faculty of generalization and of speech, makes it -possible for him to <i>learn</i> his rôle in the community, instead of being -born with it as are the bee and the ant. Great educability instead of -differentiated instinct, infinite possibility, at the expense of the -pains of learning, instead of an effortless but limited stock of inborn -modes of behaviour—in this again man represents a qualitatively new -organic type.</p> - -<p>By this means he can escape what has always been a necessity with lower -forms: by means of education and machinery he can play a specialized -part in the community life, and so build up a community with a high -degree of division of labour, without being born specialized. He could -not thus learn his rôle if he were not educable, nor if he could not -manufacture tools. An ant or a duck or a dog possesses admirable tools -for its particular job: but they are living parts of the organism’s -own body. A worker ant cannot lay down its serviceable carpentering -mandibles and become a soldier by picking up a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> large and warlike -pair:—once a worker, always a worker; once a soldier, always a -soldier—that is the rule for ants, but not for men.</p> - -<p>The efficiency and biological success of communities depends on the -degree and accuracy of the division of labour and co-ordination between -the units of which they are built up. This is true of cell-communities -and the second-grade individuals or metazoa or multicellular animals -and plants to which they give rise,<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" >[22]</a> and also of the communities -of metazoa and the third-grade individuals to which they give rise, -whether the members of such communities of higher grade are physically -bound together, as in a Hydroid or a Portuguese Man-o’-War, or -united only by mental bonds, as are the communities of ants and bees -and termites. As we have seen, the individuals are differentiated -structurally for the different functions which they have to perform.</p> - -<p>This is not so in human species: a man is not born cross-legged to -be a tailor, or broad-thumbed to be a miller, or big-armed to be a -blacksmith. Even in the hereditary castes of India, the trade or -profession is determined by tradition, and not by inborn structural -adaptations.</p> - -<p>Still another consequence flows from this educability, this flexible -and elastic mental organization. A man can pass from one occupation -to another.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> He can be specialized for several, or combine a high -degree of professional skill in one with the generalized knowledge of -an amateur in another. It is this obvious but fundamental fact which -is at the bottom of many of the failures to apply biological ideas to -sociology.</p> - -<p>Another human distinction is the increase of the part played by -environment in man as opposed to animals (in determining his -biologically effective nature). Environment plays not merely a large -part, but a preponderating one, in his development after the first -year or so of his life. Tradition provides a special environment, -made by man for man’s own development; and men brought up in markedly -different traditions arrive at different end-results just as surely and -obviously as do men of markedly different hereditary tendencies arrive -at different end-results even though exposed to similar traditions. -Traditions are infinitely complex things: there are world traditions, -national traditions broad and narrow, class traditions and traditions -of profession and trade, traditions of predilection, of art, of -religion: and men may be exposed in their development to the combined -influence of a number of these. But the net result of the diversity of -tradition is an extraordinary diversity of end-result. “<i>Nihil humanum -alienum a me puto</i>”—Terence could only say this with truth in the -sense that there are certain fundamental emotions and instincts found -in all men, and also certain aspects of environment shared by all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> -humanity—the sun and moon, earth, water, and fire, space and time, -parents and society, and so on and so forth.</p> - -<p>I make no apologies for the length of this preliminary analysis, -since it is precisely by the neglect of preliminary analysis that -most attempts to correlate biology and sociology have failed. The -salient fact emerges that with man there has been a radical change in -evolutionary method.</p> - -<p>As space is limited, I am here only proposing to consider three of the -chief contributions which biology can make to sociology—on the idea of -progress, on the relation between individual and community, and on the -applicability of the doctrine of the struggle for existence to man.</p> - -<p>As regards the idea of progress, biology can make a clear and -unequivocal contribution: whereas man is biologically so young, his -evolution is yet so chaotic and divergently directed, that it is very -hard to arrive at definite conclusions from the study of his history -alone. It has been a source of constant surprise to me that more use -has not been made of biological data in the controversy over this -question. In the little book recently edited by Mr. Marvin on various -aspects of the concept of Progress, there was no article dealing with -biological progress; and even in Professor Bury’s notable book, <i>The -Idea of Progress</i>, biology was as little and as unsatisfactorily drawn -upon as in Dean Inge’s writings on the subject. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p> - -<p>We have already seen that a certain direction obtains in organic -evolution. Into the details of this process I have not here the time -to go; we must be content with the brief enumeration which has already -been given of the qualities of organisms whose maximum level, and to a -lesser degree whose average, have increased during evolution.</p> - -<p>So far so good. But a process may be going in a definite direction and -yet not be satisfactory.</p> - -<p>This road leads to London; this other to Puddlington Parva. We all know -people who are obviously headed for success, while it is on record that -Mr. Mantalini’s direction was towards “the demnition bow-wows.”</p> - -<p>But we know that we ourselves consciously find <i>value</i> in things, in -objects and aims, in directions and processes. In this we are unique -among organisms, and as a matter of fact a large part of our life is -determined by the relative values we set on objects. On the whole, -however, there is a reasonable amount of agreement among different -individuals, at any rate in one country at one epoch, as to what they -call good and what they call bad. There are very few western Europeans -who find dirt or untruthfulness good, knowledge or bravery bad.</p> - -<p>When we look into the trend of biological evolution, we find as a -matter of fact that it has operated to produce on the whole what we -find good, to bring into being more and more things on which we can set -positive value. This is not to say that progress<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> is an inevitable “law -of nature,” but that it has actually occurred, and that its occurrence -provides an external sanction for many of our subjective human hopes -and ideals.</p> - -<p>True that we are ourselves a product of the evolutionary process and -might therefore be thought biased. None the less, it is clear that if a -degenerate animal like a tapeworm, or one inevitably specialized like -a hermit-crab, could possess and enunciate values, they would be of a -very different nature from our own. But we should further find that -the direction of the evolutionary process which led to the former was -directly opposed to the main trend, that of the latter more or less -at right angles to it. The general coincidence of the main observable -trend and of our own concepts of value warrants us in calling the one -progressive, and in feeling that the other is no mere isolated flicker -in an alien or hostile world, but finds a sanction and a resting-place -in being part of something vastly bigger than itself. The remarkable -and important fact for man is to find, in spite of all the apparently -fundamental differences between his organization and his evolutionary -methods and those of lower organisms, in spite of the widespread -degeneration and “blind-alleyism” to be seen in evolution, that the -direction in which he desires to go coincides with the resultant, the -main direction of organic evolution. There are no ideals, there is no -purpose, in fish or ant or tree: but man’s ideals and purposes are the -outcome of the blind interplay<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> of forces in which fish and ant and -tree play their unwitting rôles. True again that further analysis shows -that the methods of evolutionary progress are often crude, wasteful, -and slow: that some of our values are unreal or artificial: but this -does not destroy the main fact, and only means that each side can here -learn something from the other.</p> - -<p>The main fact abides—that progress is an evolutionary reality, and -that an analysis of the modes of biological progress may often help us -in our quest for human progress.</p> - -<p>The next great problem on which biology has something to say to -sociology is that eternal one of the relation between individual -and community. As it is sometimes put, Does the individual exist -for the State, or the State for the individual? In all non-human -biological aggregates—cell-colonies, second-grade aggregates or -metazoan organisms, third-grade aggregates like Siphonophora and -insect communities—the very existence of the aggregate as a unit, its -biological efficiency and success, depend upon a permanent division of -labour between its members, upon their thoroughgoing specialization. -This always and inevitably involves a sacrifice of certain of their -potentialities to greater efficiency in one of a few actual functions, -and in evolution a progressive subordination of the smaller unit to the -aggregate.</p> - -<p>At first sight, biological principles seem to contradict themselves -on this subject. On the one hand, the human individual is, or, we had -better say, has<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> the potentiality of being the highest type of organism -in existence—far higher, biologically speaking, not only than any -human community now in existence, but than any which we could possibly -imagine as coming into existence in the future. When we remember the -general agreement of biological progress with our human values, it is -clear that to degrade the individual for the benefit of the community -is wrong—a biological crime.</p> - -<p>On the other hand, human progress depends and will always depend to an -extent scarcely to be overrated upon the proper organization of the -community. So long as present competition continues, the very survival -of a nation may easily depend upon the efficiency of its organization -as a community. Biological as well as human experience makes it -perfectly plain that such success, in a unit which is itself an -aggregate of smaller units, depends upon the degree of specialization -of these constituent units and the division of labour and co-operation -between them.</p> - -<p>Biology here then lays down that human individuals should become -more and more specialized if progress is to continue; but since -specialization implies the sacrifice of many potentialities for the -good of the whole, this apparently contradicts what we have just -inculcated above.</p> - -<p>This is where our human flexibility comes in. Man should neither live -whole-heartedly for himself, nor throw his individuality, ant-like, -beneath the wheels<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> of the community Juggernaut. He can escape from the -dilemma by passing from one state to the other. For part of his time, -he can apply his energies as a specialized unit—for the rest, he can -be a complete individual, realizing the various potentialities of his -many-sided nature, with the community contributing to his development, -not he to the community’s. And not only can he, but he should act thus.</p> - -<p>Be it noted, to avoid misapprehension, that I have here been using the -community to denote the single aggregate unit which from the beginning -has played such an important part biologically in human evolution, not -merely as denoting the sum of individuals considered separately.</p> - -<p>Thus biology gives a definite answer to this question too. Pure -individualism is condemned, and so is what we may call ant-and-bee -socialism. Some form of the “dual day,” to use a current phrase, or at -least of the “dual life,” is the method which seems to be in accord -with the enduring principles of biology, although the precise details -are not and cannot be the biologist’s concern, and particular lives, -such as that of the creative artist, who moves on a different plane of -reality, escape his analysis.</p> - -<p>I have reserved to the close that biological principle which has been -most often and most seriously misapplied in sociology and politics—the -struggle for existence. Never was the proverb about the Devil’s quoting -Scripture better exemplified than in this matter. This fundamental -idea of Darwin’s has<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> been used as justification for three totally -different and indeed incompatible political doctrines. In England, it -has served chiefly to bolster up <i>laissez-faire</i> individualism and -free competition. In Germany in the years immediately succeeding the -publication of the <i>Origin of Species</i>, it was seized upon by the -Socialists as implying equal opportunity for all as against feudalism -or hereditary aristocracy. Later in the same country (and to a certain -extent elsewhere) it was abundantly employed as a theoretical support -for militarism.</p> - -<p>As a matter of fact, the use of it as sole principle governing the -interrelation of biological units is wholly unjustified. As has been -shown by a number of writers, among whom may especially be mentioned -Darwin himself, Ritchie in his <i>Darwinism and Politics</i>, and Kropotkin -in his <i>Mutual Aid</i>, the struggle for existence is only <i>one</i> of two -possibilities in this relationship: the other is that of co-operation, -of mutual aid, which is especially well marked in the building up of -higher-grade units from a multiplicity of smaller lower-grade ones. Two -of the most important steps in the whole evolutionary process have been -based on the co-operation of units—the origin of multicellular from -unicellular organisms, and the development of true man, with his social -life, from his pre-human ancestor. It is also prominent in the lives -of many species of the highest groups—insects, mammals, and birds: -witness the ants and bees, the rook, the wild dog, the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>elephant, the -baboon. In fact, once the bodily specialization of units has reached -a certain pitch, progress, as we have seen, is only possible through -mental development, and this in the great majority of cases brings -about aggregation into some sort of community, held together by mental -bonds.</p> - -<p>Besides aggregation of similar units, there has frequently been -co-operation between units of unlike character and origin—witness -symbiosis, as in lichens; the relation between many insects and -flowers; the formation of flocks consisting of two or more species, as -with jackdaws and rooks, and many other cases.</p> - -<p>Competition and co-operation both occur throughout the whole of -evolution: but co-operation comes to play an ever more considerable -part in higher forms. In lower organisms enormous overproduction is -of no great consequence; their organization is simple, and, given -favourable conditions, they can turn inorganic matter into their own -specific substance at a great rate. But higher forms are more complex, -more delicately balanced, and longer lived. Accordingly, waste of life -is of greater consequence to them, and methods by which a struggle on -the grand scale can be minimized tend to be more and more adopted. We -find regularly, for instance, a reduction of the number of offspring in -higher groups together with greater parental care.</p> - -<p>Thus co-operation, for still fresh reasons, is biologically important -for the higher groups. The <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>problem is becoming increasingly pressing -for the human race, since the time is in sight when the whole habitable -area of the globe will be colonized, up to a certain level of density -and efficiency, by members of the more advanced races. Biologically -speaking, it is perfectly clear that some co-operative system, -involving federation in one form or another, is the proper system to -adopt; and that the “world-state”—not necessarily organized after -the plan of our present highly specialized nationalist-industrialist -states, which appear happily to represent only a temporary phase -of evolution, but none the less an organic reality, a co-operative -unit—that the “world-state” is not merely a figment of unpractical -dreamers, but an obviously desirable aim for humanity. Kant, a century -and a half ago even, had seen clearly enough that some universal -society was a necessity for the unfolding of human possibility; and had -gone further and pointed out that there were indications of a movement -of civilization in that direction. In our time, this movement has been -retarded by the extraordinary and mushroom growth of Nationalism, in -which to the average man his “Country” (really <i>Nation</i>) has become -his most real God. In the last hundred years, Nationalism has usurped -the place of Religion as the most important super-individual interest -of individuals—has indeed in some sense become a religion. It is -leading the world into an impasse, as do all incomplete and partial -conceptions; but, in the Hague Court and the League of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> Nations, has -already generated the seeds of what will in time devour it.<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" >[23]</a></p> - -<p>To sum up, we may say that the crude application to human affairs of -the doctrine of the struggle for existence, torn from its biological -context, isolated and over-emphasized, is wholly unwarranted. On the -other hand, a struggle does continue, both of the direct and indirect -type defined by Darwin: and there is no prospect of it ceasing to play -an important part in human biology. Co-operation is not, any more than -competition, to be taken as the sole desirable principle. Panaceas of -this sort do not exist, except to make bubble reputations and quack -fortunes. Even within such a highly organized co-operative unit as -the mammalian body a struggle continues—the different tissues are -in competition with each other for food, and if the available supply -diminishes below the necessary level, some tissues will be drawn upon -by other more successful competitors, and the struggle will lead to an -end-result in which the proportion of the various kinds of cells comes -to be very different from what they were in the normal well-nourished -body.<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" >[24]</a> That is a purely biological example. In man, since the -unification of the community is of a low order, it is inevitable that -individuals and sections will continue in some form of competition with -each other: not only this, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>however, but the additional fact that man’s -mental organization reacts strongly to the stimulus of competition make -it probable that a “struggle” of some sort will not only be inevitable -but up to a point beneficial in any form of society. What is more, once -co-operation exists, competition between the co-operative units is -necessary to bring out the full efficiency of their combination.</p> - -<p>All that the biologist can do is to point out that neither the -one-sided application of the principle of struggle nor of that of -co-operation is biologically sound. But, as everywhere else in human -conduct, after the broad principles have been grasped, success lies -always in a delicate, continuous adjustment of conflicting claims, in -what one may call a personal conscious effort. Struggle is universal: -but by itself it can only lead to a certain stage of evolutionary -progress.</p> - -<p>The half-baked moralist may lay down the law about right and wrong -with the most positive assurance; but, by not paying attention to the -necessity for sweet reasonableness, give-and-take, unselfishness, for -thought about the thousand and one details of daily conduct, he may be -making himself and his wife thoroughly unhappy, ruining his family’s -chances, and, as a matter of fact, be thoroughly immoral without once -suspecting it.</p> - -<p>It is in a very similar way that the militarist, for instance, -fortifying himself in the doctrine of the struggle for existence with -what he regards as an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> impregnable sanction for his theories, is in -reality acting immorally because not attempting to envisage the whole -problem.</p> - -<p>There is one very interesting evolutionary point which well illustrates -the difference between pure biology and pure sociology, and yet -emphasizes the natural connection between the two. Once again it has -a connection with the greater flexibility of human mind. As we have -seen, in the lowest animals behaviour is for the most part unvarying, -hereditarily determined: the organism is capable of a number of -definite reactions, and if these do not suffice to extricate it from -difficulties, it perishes. The first step towards gaining is the -power of learning. “Once bitten, twice shy” is applicable to all -higher vertebrates; and it is not only the burnt child who dreads the -fire (although a study of moths and candles will convince us that -“Lepidopteran” cannot be substituted as subject of the proverb).</p> - -<p>When, as in the higher mammals, the power of learning by experience is -rapid, the individual organism is better able to adjust itself to the -dangers of life, and once more there is less sacrifice of individuals -in the struggle. The same organism persists: but of two possible types -of behaviour, the unmodified innate type is eliminated, the type -modified by experience survives. If we like to put it in a way which -is perhaps not wholly justifiable, there comes into being, besides the -struggle for existence between individuals, a struggle for existence -between<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> different possible modes of reaction of one and the same -organism.</p> - -<p>With the advent of man upon the scene, still new possibilities arise. -First of all, he is capable of ideas, which, biologically speaking, are -to be regarded as potentialities of behaviour. There is no evidence at -present that even the highest animals possess ideas or even images.<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" >[25]</a> -Secondly, these ideas are transmissible by speech and writing, and -accordingly tradition has come into being, so that modification of -behaviour by experience can be operative not only within the individual -life, not only from one generation to the next immediately succeeding, -as in many mammals, but for an indefinite period. The experience of -Moses, Archimedes, or Charlemagne, of Jesus, Newton, or James Watt is -modifying our behaviour to-day.</p> - -<p>The result, both for individuals and communities, is that a selection -of ideas instead of a selection of organic units can to an ever greater -extent take place; and thus the actual extinction of living matter -be increasingly avoided. For instance, we find the substitution of -judicial procedure, in which the ideas of two disputants about the -matter in dispute are weighed and a selection made in favour of one, -for various forms of violence and combat in which one or other of the -actual disputants was often eliminated. Or again, in struggles between -communities,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> even though warfare is still resorted to, yet it does -not operate in the same way as in earlier stages of human evolution. A -salient example of this is afforded by the result of the recent war to -Germany; although an equally good instance can be seen, for example, -in the Boer War. In primitive wars, the defeated tribe was wherever -possible exterminated or enslaved: it ceased to exist as an independent -unit, and the great majority of its male members were killed. This is -impossible under present conditions: and all those who preserve, or -have ever possessed, any political sanity aim, for instance, neither at -the physical nor the economic destruction or subordination of Germany, -but—to use one of those attractive catchwords that sounded so well in -war-time—at her “change of heart”—in other words, the extermination, -not of a nation, but of a national tradition.</p> - -<p>To what extent this substitution of mental for physical will continue -it is hard to say; already, to take another field, the multiplication -of cheap books has led to an ever increasing number of men and women -finding most of their adventure and romance in books instead of in the -life that we are accustomed to call real. But that would lead us away -from our main point—enough to have indicated another great difference -between processes above and below the human level.</p> - -<p>There are numerous important questions concerning our right to apply -biological ideas of heredity directly to human beings which I would -have liked<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> to touch upon. But for one thing I have not the time, and -for another, Mr. Carr-Saunders in his recent book on the Population -Problem has dealt so fully with the relation between biological -inheritance and what may be called tradition-inheritance, that I omit -them with a good conscience.</p> - -<p>In this brief treatment I have had to ask you to take conclusions on -trust, without presenting the evidence on which they are based; this, -however, is inevitable when transferring ideas from one science to -another. I have attempted to show, first, that biology can profit by -incorporating certain conclusions of sociology and so rounding off and -completing certain of its own principles: on the other hand, I have put -before you my belief that there are certain basic biological principles -which must be taken into account by the sociologist—principles which -hold good in sociology because man too is an organism.</p> - -<p>By now, however, we can see more clearly the way in which the various -sciences with which we are concerned, of whose relations we had -something to say at the beginning of this essay, properly interlock.</p> - -<p>They interlock thus. The physico-chemical sciences are basic to -biology. Organisms are made of the same substances as are non-living -compounds; their processes are therefore conformable to certain -physico-chemical laws, such as the indestructibility of matter, the -conservation of energy, and so forth; and in so far as we analyse the -material aspect of life, physico-chemical concepts are <i>adequate</i>. -On the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> other hand, physico-chemical concepts—or at least our -present ones—are not <i>all-sufficient</i>. In the first place, the very -complicated arrangement of matter which is found in living substance -has not been yet sufficiently analysed by physics and chemistry: -accordingly we find many processes occurring in biology—such as the -directional changes in evolution of which we have spoken—which could -not have been foretold on our present physico-chemical knowledge, -but must be investigated separately as adding to our store of facts -and principles, in the confident hope that a synthesis will one -day be possible. Secondly, a whole new category of phenomena, the -psychological, is first met with in biology, and to this we cannot as -yet apply physical or chemical ideas at all.</p> - -<p>For a combination of these two reasons, biology deals with certain -concepts which are not implicit in current physico-chemical ideas. -Physics and chemistry are basic for biology, but they are not -exhaustive.</p> - -<p>In a very similar way, biology is basic for sociology, but again not -exhaustive. Certain limits are set to human life through man’s organic -nature. Certain of his activities can be completely analysed in terms -of biology. But other of his activities, especially those concerned -with his new type of mental organization, find no counterpart in -the rest of the biological kingdoms, and must be studied in and for -themselves.</p> - -<p>Bergson would have us believe that evolution is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> creative. It is better -to say, with Lloyd Morgan, that it is emergent. With new degrees of -complexity, new qualitative differences emerge. Thus the sciences are -a hierarchy, the subject-matter of one constituting the foundation for -the next in the series. All that biology can do for sociology is to -help her to build her foundations solidly and correctly: but we all -know that without good foundations no building is safe.</p> - -<h3>BIBLIOGRAPHY</h3> - -<blockquote><p>Bury, J. B., ’20. “The Idea of Progress.” London, 1920.</p> - -<p>Carr-Saunders, A. M., ’22. “The Population Problem.” Oxford, 1922.</p> - -<p>Hobhouse, L. T., ’01. “Mind in Evolution.” London, 1901.</p> - -<p>Huxley, J. S., ’12. “The Individual in the Animal Kingdom.” -Cambridge, 1912.</p> - -<p>Keyser, ’21. “Science” (N.S.) New York, 1921.</p> - -<p>Kropotkin, Prince, ’08. “Mutual Aid, A Factor in Evolution.” -London, 1908.</p> - -<p>Lloyd Morgan, C., ’23. “Emergent Evolution.” London, 1923.</p> - -<p>Marvin, F. S. “Progress and History” (5th Imp.). Oxford, 1921.</p> - -<p>Radl, E., ’09. “Geschichte der biologischen Theorien,” vol. ii. -Leipzig, 1909.</p> - -<p>Ritchie, ’01. “Darwinism in Politics” (4th Ed.). London, 1901.</p> - -<p>Roberts, Morley, ’20. “Warfare in the Human Body.” London, 1920. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span></p> - -<p>Roux, W., ’81. “Der Kampf der Teile im Organismics.” 1881.</p> - -<p>Sherrington, ’22. “The Advancement of Science, 1922.” London, 1922.</p> - -<p>Spencer, Herbert. “First Principles,” “Principles of Biology,” -“Principles of Sociology.”</p> - -<p>Thorndike, E. L., ’11. “Animal Intelligence.” New York, 1911.</p> - -<p>Trotter, W., ’19. “Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War” (2nd -Ed.). London, 1919.</p> - -<p>Wells, H. G., ’21. “The Outline of History.” London, 1921.</p></blockquote> - -<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> - -<p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18">[18]</a> For a remarkable critical history of biological thought -during this period, see Radl, ’09.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19">[19]</a> Morley Roberts is a recent exception. See his interesting -book, <i>Warfare in the Human Body</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20">[20]</a> <i>Science</i>, September 1921.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21">[21]</a> See Thorndike, ’11.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22">[22]</a> See J. S. Huxley, ’12, for a discussion of the grades of -biological individuality.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23">[23]</a> See, e.g., Wells, ’21, pp. 558, 666.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24">[24]</a> See Roux, ’81, for a discussion of this important -extension of Darwinism.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25">[25]</a> See Thorndike, <i>op. cit.</i>; Washburn, <i>The Animal Mind</i>. -New York, 1913.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>III</span> <span class="smaller">ILS N’ONT QUE DE L’ÂME: AN ESSAY ON BIRD-MIND</span></h2> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span></p> - -<p class="center">THE BIRDS</p> - -<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div>To most of us, a bird’s a feathered song</div> -<div class="i1">Which for our pleasure gives a voice to spring.</div> -<div class="i1">We make a symbol of its airy wing</div> -<div>Bright with the liberty for which we long.</div> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<div>Or we discover them with love more strong</div> -<div class="i1">As each a separate, individual thing</div> -<div class="i1">Which only learns to act, or move, or sing</div> -<div>In ways that wholly to itself belong.</div> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<div>But some with deeper and more inward sight</div> -<div class="i1">See them a part of that one Life which streams</div> -<div>Slow on, towards more mind—a part more light</div> -<div class="i1">Then we; unburdened with regrets, or dreams,</div> -<div>Or thought. A winged emotion of the sky,</div> -<div>The birds through an eternal Present fly.</div> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<div><span class="smcap">Oxford</span>, <i>April 1923</i>.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span></p> - -<p class="bold2">ILS N’ONT QUE DE L’ÂME: <br />AN ESSAY ON BIRD-MIND</p> - -<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div>“O Nightingale, thou surely art</div> -<div>A creature of a fiery heart.”</div> -<div class="i6">—<span class="smcap">W. Wordsworth.</span></div> -</div></div></div> - -<blockquote><p>“The inferior animals, when the conditions of life are favourable, -are subject to periodical fits of gladness, affecting them -powerfully and standing out in vivid contrast to their ordinary -temper.... Birds are more subject to this universal joyous -instinct than mammals, and ... as they are much freer than -mammals, more buoyant and graceful in action, more loquacious, -and have voices so much finer, their gladness shows itself in a -greater variety of ways, with more regular and beautiful motions, -and with melody.”—<span class="smcap">W. H. Hudson.</span></p></blockquote> - -<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div>“How do you know but ev’ry Bird that cuts the airy way</div> -<div>Is an immense world of delight, clos’d by your senses five?”</div> -<div class="right">—<span class="smcap">Blake.</span></div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>“<i>Ils n’ont pas de cerveau—ils n’ont que de l’âme.</i>” A dog was -being described, with all his emotion, his apparent passion to make -himself understood, his failure to reach comprehension; and that was -how the French man of letters summed up the brute creation—“<i>pas de -cerveau—que de l’âme</i>.”</p> - -<p>Nor is it a paradox: it is a half-truth that is more than half -true—more true at least than its converse, which many hold.</p> - -<p>There is a large school to-day who assert that <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>animals are “mere -machines.” Machines they may be: it is the qualification which does -not fit. I suppose that by saying “mere” machines it is meant to imply -that they have the soulless, steely quality of a machine which goes -when it is set going, stops when another lever is turned, acts only in -obedience to outer stimuli, and is in fact unemotional—a bundle of -operations without any quality meriting the name of a self.</p> - -<p>It is true that the further we push our analysis of animal behaviour, -the more we find it composed of a series of automatisms, the more we -see it rigorously determined by combination of inner constitution -and outer circumstance, the more we have cause to deny to animals -the possession of anything deserving the name of reason, ideals, or -abstract thought. The more, in fact, do they appear to us as mechanisms -(which is a much better word than machines, since this latter carries -with it definite connotations of metal or wood, electricity or steam). -They are mechanisms, because their mode of operation is regular; but -they differ from any other type of mechanism known to us in that their -working is—to put it in the most non-committal way—accompanied by -emotion. It is, to be sure, a combination of emotion with reason that -we attribute to a soul; but none the less, in popular parlance at -least, the emotional side is predominant, and pure reason is set over -against the emotional content which gives soul its essence. And<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> this -emotional content we most definitely find running through the lives of -higher animals.</p> - -<p>The objection is easily and often raised that we have no direct -knowledge of emotion in an animal, no direct proof of the existence of -any purely mental process in its life. But this is as easily laid as -raised. We have no direct knowledge of emotion or any other conscious -process in the life of any human being save our individual selves; -and yet we feel no hesitation in deducing it from others’ behaviour. -Although it is an arguable point whether biological science may not for -the moment be better served by confining the subject-matter and terms -of analysis to behaviour alone, it is a very foolhardy “behaviorist” -indeed who denies the <i>existence</i> of emotion and conscious process!</p> - -<p>But the practical value of this method of thinking is, as I say, an -arguable point; it is indeed clear that a great immediate advance, -especially in non-human biology, has been and may still be made -by translating the uncertain and often risky terms of subjective -psychology into those based upon the objective description of directly -observable behaviour. However, it is equally easy to maintain, and I -for one maintain it, that to omit a whole category of phenomena from -consideration is unscientific, and must in the long run lead to an -unreal, because limited, view of things; and that, when great detail of -analysis is not required, but only broad lines and general comparison, -the psychological terminology, of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>memory, fear, anger, curiosity, -affection, is the simpler and more direct tool, and should be used -to supplement and make more real the cumbersome and less complete -behavioristic terminology, of modification of behaviour, fright, -aggression, and the rest.</p> - -<p>It is at least abundantly clear that, if we are to believe in the -principle of uniformity at all, we must ascribe emotion to animals as -well as to men: the similarity of behaviour is so great that to assert -the absence of a whole class of phenomena in one case, its presence in -the other, is to make scientific reasoning a farce.</p> - -<p>“<i>Pas de cerveau—que de l’âme.</i>” Those especially who have studied -birds will subscribe to this. The variety of their emotions is greater, -their intensity more striking, than in four-footed beasts, while their -power of modifying behaviour by experience is less, the subjection -to instinct more complete. Those who are interested in the details -can see from experiments, such as those recorded by Mr. Eliot Howard -in his <i>Territory in Bird Life</i>, how limited is a bird’s power of -adjustment; but I will content myself with a single example, one of -nature’s experiments, recorded by Mr. Chance last year by the aid of -the cinematograph—the behaviour of small birds when the routine of -their life is upset by the presence of a young Cuckoo in the nest.</p> - -<p>When, after prodigious exertions, the unfledged Cuckoo has ejected its -foster-brothers and sisters from their home, it sometimes happens that -one of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> them is caught on or close to the rim of the nest. One such -case was recorded by Mr. Chance’s camera. The unfortunate fledgling -scrambled about on the branches below the nest; the parent Pipit flew -back with food; the cries and open mouth of the ejected bird attracted -attention, and it was fed; and the mother then settled down upon the -nest as if all was in normal order. Meanwhile, the movements of the -fledgling in the foreground grew feebler, and one could imagine its -voice quavering off, fainter and fainter, as its vital warmth departed. -At the next return of the parent with food the young one was dead.</p> - -<p>It was the utter stupidity of the mother that was so impressive—its -simple response to stimulus—of feeding to the stimulus of the young’s -cry and open mouth, of brooding to that of the nest with something warm -and feathery contained in it—its neglect of any steps whatsoever to -restore the fallen nestling to safety. It was almost as pitiable an -exhibition of unreason as the well-attested case of the wasp attendant -on a wasp-grub, who, on being kept without food for some time, grew -more and more restless, and eventually bit off the hind end of the grub -and offered it to what was left!</p> - -<p>Birds in general are stupid, in the sense of being little able to -meet unforeseen emergencies; but their lives are often emotional, and -their emotions are richly and finely expressed. I have for years been -interested in observing the courtship and the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>relations of the sexes -in birds, and have in my head a number of pictures of their notable and -dramatic moments. These seem to me to illustrate so well the emotional -furnishing of birds, and to provide such a number of windows into that -strange thing we call a bird’s mind, that I shall simply set some of -them down as they come to me.</p> - -<p>First, then, the coastal plain of Louisiana; a pond, made and kept as -a sanctuary by that public-spirited bird-lover Mr. E. A. McIlhenny, -filled with noisy crowds of Egrets and little egret-like Herons. -These, in great flocks, fly back across the “Mexique Bay” in the -spring months from their winter quarters in South America. Arrived in -Louisiana, they feed and roost in flocks for a time, but gradually -split up into pairs. Each pair, detaching themselves from the flocks, -choose a nesting-site (by joint deliberation) among the willows and -maples of the breeding pond. And then follows a curious phenomenon. -Instead of proceeding at once to biological business in the shape of -nest-building and egg-laying, they indulge in what can only be styled -a honeymoon. For three or four days both members of the pair are -always on the chosen spot, save for the necessary visits which they -alternately pay to the distant feeding grounds. When both are there, -they will spend hours at a time sitting quite still, just touching -one another. Generally the hen sits on a lower branch, resting her -head against the cock bird’s flanks; they look for all the world like -one of those inarticulate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> but happy couples upon a bench in the park -in spring. Now and again, however, this passivity of sentiment gives -place to wild excitement. Upon some unascertainable cause the two birds -raise their necks and wings, and, with loud cries, intertwine their -necks. This is so remarkable a sight that the first time I witnessed -it I did not fully credit it, and only after it had happened before my -eyes on three or four separate occasions was I forced to admit it as -a regular occurrence in their lives. The long necks are so flexible -that they can and do make a complete single turn round each other—a -real true-lover’s-knot! This once accomplished, each bird then—most -wonderful of all—runs its beak quickly and amorously through the just -raised aigrettes of the other, again and again, nibbling and clappering -them from base to tip. Of this I can only say that it seemed to bring -such a pitch of emotion that I could have wished to be a Heron that -I might experience it. This over, they would untwist their necks and -subside once more into their usual quieter sentimentality.</p> - -<p>This, alas! I never saw with the less common little White Egrets, but -with the Louisiana Heron (which should, strictly speaking, be called an -egret too); but since every other action of the two species is (in all -save a few minor details) the same, I assume that the flashing white, -as well as the slate and vinous and grey birds, behave thus.</p> - -<p>The greeting ceremony when one bird of the pair, after having been -away at the feeding grounds, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span>rejoins its mate is also beautiful. Some -little time before the human watcher notes the other’s approach, the -waiting bird rises on its branch, arches and spreads its wings, lifts -its aigrettes into a fan and its head-plumes into a crown, bristles up -the feathers of its neck, and emits again and again a hoarse cry. The -other approaches, settles in the branches near by, puts itself into -a similar position, and advances towards its mate; and after a short -excited space they settle down close together. This type of greeting is -repeated every day until the young leave the nest; for after the eggs -are laid both sexes brood, and there is a nest-relief four times in -every twenty-four hours. Each time the same attitudes, the same cries, -the same excitement; only now at the end of it all, one steps off the -nest, the other on. One might suppose that this closed the performance. -But no: the bird that has been relieved is still apparently animated -by stores of unexpended emotion; it searches about for a twig, breaks -it off or picks it up, and returns with it in beak to present to the -other. During the presentation the greeting ceremony is again gone -through; after each relief the whole business of presentation and -greeting may be repeated two, or four, or up even to ten or eleven -times before the free bird flies away.</p> - -<p>When there are numerous repetitions of the ceremony, it is extremely -interesting to watch the progressive extinction of excitement. During -the last one or two presentations the twig-bringing bird may<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> scarcely -raise his wings or plumes, and will often betray an absent air, turning -his head in the direction in which he is proposing to fly off.</p> - -<p>No one who has seen a pair of Egrets thus change places on the nest, -bodies bowed forward, plumes a cloudy fan of lace, absolute whiteness -of plumage relieved by gold of eye and lore and black of bill, and the -whole scene animated by the repeated, excited cry, can ever forget it. -But such unforgettable scenes are not confined to other countries. Here -in England you can see as good; I have seen them on the reservoirs of -Tring, and within full view of the road by Frensham Pond—the courtship -forms and dances of the Crested Grebe.</p> - -<p>The Crested Grebe is happily becoming more familiar to bird-lovers -in England. Its brilliant white belly, protective grey-brown back, -rippleless and effortless diving, long neck, and splendid ruff and -ear-tufts of black, chestnut, and white, conspire to make it a marked -bird. In the winter the crest is small, and even when fully grown -in spring it is usually held close down against the head, so as to -be not at all conspicuous. When it is spread, it is almost, without -exception, in the service of courtship or love-making. Ten years ago I -spent my spring holiday watching these birds on the Tring reservoirs. -I soon found out that their courtship, like the Herons’, was mutual, -not one-sidedly masculine as in Peacocks or fowls. It consisted most -commonly in a little ceremony of head-shaking. The birds of a pair -come<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> close, face one another, raise their necks, and half-spread -their ruffs. Then, with a little barking note, they shake their heads -rapidly, following this by a slow swinging of them from side to -side. This alternate shaking and swinging continues perhaps a dozen -or twenty times; and the birds then lower their standards, become -normal everyday creatures, and betake themselves to their fishing or -resting or preening again. This is the commonest bit of love-making; -but now and then the excitement evident even in these somewhat casual -ceremonies is raised to greater heights and seems to reinforce itself. -The little bouts of shaking are repeated again and again. I have seen -over eighty succeed each other uninterruptedly. And at the close the -birds do not relapse into ordinary life. Instead, they raise their -ruffs still further, making them almost Elizabethan in shape. Then one -bird dives; then the other: the seconds pass. At last, after perhaps -half or three-quarters of a minute (half a minute is a long time when -one is thus waiting for a bird’s reappearance!) one after the other -they emerge. Both hold masses of dark brownish-green weed, torn from -the bottom of the pond, in their beaks, and carry their heads down -and back on their shoulders, so that either can scarcely see anything -of the other confronting it save the concentric colours of the raised -ruff. In this position they swim together. It is interesting to see -the eager looks of the first-emerged, and its immediate start towards -the second when it too reappears. They approach,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> rapidly, until the -watcher wonders what will be done to avert a collision. The answer -is simple: there is no averting of a collision! But the collision is -executed in a remarkable way: the two birds, when close to each other, -leap up from the water and meet breast to breast, almost vertical, -suddenly revealing the whole flashing white under-surface. They keep -themselves in this position by violent splashings of the feet, rocking -a little from side to side as if dancing, and very gradually sinking -down (always touching with their breasts) towards the horizontal.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile, they exchange some of the weed they are carrying; or at -least nibbling and quick movements of the head are going on. And so -they settle down on to the water, shake their heads a few times more, -and separate, changing back from these performers of an amazing age-old -rite—age-old but ever fresh—into the feeding- and sleeping-machines -of every day, but leaving a vision of strong emotion, canalized into -the particular forms of this dive and dance. The whole performance -impresses the watcher not only with its strength, but as being -apparently of very little direct (though possibly much indirect) -biological advantage, the action being self-exhausting, not stimulating -to further sexual relations, and carried out, it would seem, for its -own sake.</p> - -<p>Further acquaintance with the Grebe only deepened the interest and made -clearer the emotional tinge underlying all the relations of the sexes. -This bird, too, has its “greeting ceremony”; but since, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>unlike the -colonial Herons and Egrets, it makes every effort to conceal its nest, -this cannot take place at its most natural moment, that of nest-relief, -but must be made to happen out on the open water where there are no -secrets to betray. If the sitting bird wishes to leave the nest, and -the other does not return, it flies off, after covering the eggs with -weed, in search of its mate; it is common in the breeding season to see -a Grebe in the “search-attitude,” with neck stretched up and slightly -forward and ear-tufts erected, emitting a special and far-carrying -call. When this call is recognized and answered, the two birds do -nothing so simple as to fly or swim to each other, but a special and -obviously exciting ceremony is gone through. The bird that has been -searched for and found puts itself into a very beautiful attitude, with -wings half-spread and set at right angles to the body, ruff erected -circularly, and head drawn back upon the shoulders, so that nothing -is visible but the brilliant rosette of the spread ruff in the centre -of the screen of wings, each wing showing a broad bar of brilliant -white on its dusk-grey surface. In this position it swings restlessly -back and forth in small arcs, facing towards its mate. The discoverer -meanwhile has dived; but, swimming immediately below the surface of the -water, its progress can be traced by the arrowy ripple it raises. Now -and again it lifts its head and neck above the water, periscope-wise, -to assure itself of its direction, and resumes its subaqueous course. -Nor does it rise just in front of the other bird; but swims<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> under and -just beyond, and, as its mate swings round to the new orientation, -emerges in a really extraordinary attitude. At the last it must have -dived a little deeper; for now it appears perpendicularly from the -water, with a slowish motion, slightly spiral, the beak and head -pressed down along the front of the neck. I compared it in my notes -of ten years ago with “the ghost of a Penguin,” and that comparison -is still the best I can think of to give some idea of the strange -unreality of its appearance. It then settles down upon the water and -the pair indulge in one of their never-failing bouts of head-shaking.</p> - -<p>Two mated birds rejoin each other after a few hours’ separation. Simple -enough in itself—but what elaboration of detail, what piling on of -little excitements, what purveying of thrills!</p> - -<p>Other emotions too can be well studied in this bird, notably jealousy. -Several times I have seen little scenes like the following enacted. -A pair is floating idly side by side, necks drawn right down so that -the head rests on the centre of the back. One—generally, I must -admit, it has been the cock, but I think the hen may do so too on -occasion—rouses himself from the pleasant lethargy, swims up to -his mate, places himself in front of her, and gives a definite, if -repressed, shake of the head. It is an obvious sign of his desire to -“have a bit of fun”—to go through with one of those bouts of display -and head-shaking in which pleasurable emotion clearly reaches its -highest level in the birds’ lives, as any one who has<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> watched their -habits with any thoroughness would agree. It also acts, by a simple -extension of function, as an informative symbol. The other bird knows -what is meant; it raises its head from beneath its wing, gives a -sleepy, barely discernible shake—and replaces the head. In so doing -it puts back the possibility of the ceremony and the thrill into its -slumbers; for it takes two to make love, for Grebe as for human. The -cock swims off; but he has a restless air, and in a minute or so is -back again, and the same series of events is run through. This may be -repeated three or four times.</p> - -<p>If now another hen bird, unaccompanied by a mate, reveals herself to -the eye of the restless and disappointed cock, he will make for her and -try the same insinuating informative head-shake on her; and, in the -cases that I have seen, she has responded, and a bout of shaking has -begun. Flirtation—illicit love, if you will; for the Grebe, during -each breeding season at least, is strictly monogamous, and the whole -economics of its family life, if I may use the expression, are based on -the co-operation of male and female in incubation and the feeding and -care of the young. On the other hand, how natural and how human! and -how harmless—for there is no evidence that the pretty thrills of the -head-shaking display ever lead on to anything more serious.</p> - -<p>But now observe. Every time that I have seen such a flirtation start, -it has always been interrupted. The mate, so sleepy before, yet must -have had one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> eye open all the time. She is at once aroused to action: -she dives, and attacks the strange hen after the fashion of Grebes, -from below, with an underwater thrust of the sharp beak in the belly. -Whether the thrust ever goes home I do not know. Generally, I think, -the offending bird becomes aware of the danger just in time, and, -squawking, hastily flaps off. The rightful mate emerges. What does she -do now? Peck the erring husband? Leave him in chilly disgrace? Not a -bit of it! She approaches with an eager note, and in a moment the two -are hard at it, shaking their heads; and, indeed, on such occasions you -may see more vigour and excitement thrown into the ceremony than at any -other time.</p> - -<p>Again we exclaim, how human! And again we see to what a pitch of -complexity the bird’s emotional life is tuned.</p> - -<p>It will have been observed that in the Grebe, whose chief skill lies -in its wonderful powers of diving, these powers have been utilized as -the raw material of several of the courtship ceremonies. This pressing -of the everyday faculties of the bird into the service of emotion, the -elevation and conversion of its useful powers of diving and underwater -swimming into ceremonials of passion, is from an evolutionary point -of view natural enough, and has its counterparts elsewhere. So in -the Divers, not too distant relatives of the Grebes, swimming and -diving have their rôle in courtship. Here too the thrilling, vertical -emergence close to the mate takes place; and there is a strange<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> -ceremony in which two or three birds plough their way through the water -with body set obliquely—hinder parts submerged, breast raised, and -neck stretched forward and head downward with that strange look of -rigidity or tension often seen in the courtship actions of birds.</p> - -<p>Or, again, I once saw (strangely enough from the windows of the -Headmaster’s house at Radley!) the aerial powers of the Kestrel -converted to the uses of courtship. The hen bird was sitting in a large -bush beyond the lawn. A strong wind was blowing, and the cock again -and again beat his way up against it, to turn when nearly at the house -and bear down upon the bush in an extremity of speed. Just when it -seemed inevitable that he would knock his mate off her perch and dash -himself and her into the branches, he changed the angle of his wings -to shoot vertically up the face of the bush; then turned and repeated -the play. Sometimes he came so near to her that she would start back, -flapping her wings, as if really fearing a collision. The wind was so -strong—and blowing away from me—that I could not hear what cries may -have accompanied the display.</p> - -<p>A friend of mine who knows the Welsh mountains and is a watcher of -birds as well, tells me that he has there seen the Peregrine Falcons -do the same thing: the same thing—except that the speed was perhaps -twice as great, and the background a savage rock precipice instead of a -Berkshire garden.</p> - -<p>Not only the activities of everyday life, but also<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> those of -nest-building, are taken and used to build up the ceremonies of -courtship; but whereas in the former case the actions are simply those -which are most natural to and best performed by the bird, in the latter -there is, no doubt, actual association between the cerebral centres -concerned with nest-building and with sexual emotion in general. Thus -we almost invariably find the seizing of nest-material in the beak as -a part of courtship, and this is often extended to a presentation of -the material to the mate. This we see in the Grebes, with the dank -weeds of which their sodden nest is built; the Divers use moss in the -construction of theirs, and the mated birds repair to moss banks, -where they nervously pluck the moss, only to drop it again or throw it -over their shoulder. Among the Warblers, the males pluck or pick up a -leaf or twig, and with this in their beak hop and display before the -hens; and the Peewit plucks frenziedly at grass and straws. The Adelie -Penguins, so well described by Dr. Levick, make their nests of stones, -and use stones in their courtship.</p> - -<p>A curious, unnatural transference of object may sometimes be seen in -these Penguins. The normal course of things is for this brave but comic -creature, having picked up a stone in its beak, to come up before -another of opposite sex, and, with stiff bow and absurdly outstretched -flippers, to deposit it at the other’s feet. When, however, there are -men near the rookery, the birds will sometimes in all solemnity come -up to them with their stone offering and lay<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> it at the feet of the -embarrassed or amused human being.</p> - -<p>The Adelies do not nest by their natural element the sea, but some way -away from it on stony slopes and rock patches; thus they cannot employ -their brilliant dives and feats of swimming in courtship, but content -themselves, apart from this presentation of household material, with -what Dr. Levick describes as “going into ecstasy”—spreading their -flippers sideways, raising their head quite straight upwards, and -emitting a low humming sound. This a bird may do when alone, or the two -birds of a pair may make a duet of it. In any case, the term applied -to it by its observer well indicates the state of emotion which it -suggests and no doubt expresses.</p> - -<p>The depositing of courtship offerings before men by the Penguins shows -us that there must be a certain freedom of mental connection in birds. -Here an act, properly belonging to courtship, is performed as the -outlet, as it were, of another and unusual emotion. The same is seen -in many song-birds, who, like the Sedge Warbler, sing loudly for anger -when disturbed near their nest; or in the Divers, who, when an enemy is -close to the nest, express the violence of their emotion by short sharp -dives which flip a fountain of spray into the air—a type of dive also -used as a sign of general excitement in courtship.</p> - -<p>Or, again, the actions may be performed for their own sake, as we may -say: because their performance,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> when the bird is full of energy and -outer conditions are favourable, gives pleasure. The best-known example -is the song of song-birds. This, as Eliot Howard has abundantly shown, -is in its origin and essential function a symbol of possession, of a -nesting territory occupied by a male—to other males a notice that -“trespassers will be prosecuted,” to females an invitation to settle, -pair, and nest. But in all song-birds, practically without exception, -the song is by no means confined to the short period during which it -actually performs these functions, but is continued until the young are -hatched, often to be taken up again when they have flown, or after the -moult, or even, as in the Song Thrush, on almost any sunny or warm day -the year round.</p> - -<p>And finally this leads on to what is perhaps the most interesting -category of birds’ actions—those which are not merely sometimes -performed for their own sake, although they possess other and -utilitarian function, but actually have no other origin or <i>raison -d’être</i> than to be performed for their own sake. They represent, in -fact, true play or sport among ourselves; and seem better developed -among birds than among mammals, or at least than among mammals below -the monkey. True that the cat plays with the mouse, and many young -mammals, like kittens, lambs, and kids, are full of play; but the -playing with the mouse is more like the singing of birds outside the -mating season, a transference of a normal activity to the plane of -play; and the play of young animals, as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> Groos successfully exerted -himself to show, is of undoubted use. To be sure, the impulse to play -must be <i>felt</i> by the young creature as an exuberance of emotion and -spirits demanding expression; but a similar impulse must be felt for -all instinctive actions. Psychologically and individually, if you like, -the action is performed for its own sake; but from the standpoint -of evolution and of the race it has been originated, or at least -perfected, as a practice ground for immature limbs and a training and -keeping ready of faculties that in the future will be needed in earnest.</p> - -<p>We shall best see the difference between mammals’ and birds’ behaviour -by giving some examples. A very strange one I saw in a pond near the -Egret rookery in Louisiana. Here, among other interesting birds, -were the Darters or Water Turkeys, curious-looking relatives of the -Cormorants, with long, thin, flexible neck, tiny head, and sharp beak, -who often swim with all the body submerged, showing nothing but the -snake-like neck above water. One of these was sitting on a branch of -swamp-cedar, solitary and apparently tranquil. But this tranquillity -must have been the cloak of boredom. For suddenly the bird, looking -restlessly about her (it was a hen), began to pluck at the little green -twigs near by. She pulled one off in her beak, and then, tossing her -head up, threw it into the air, and with dexterous twist caught it -again in her beak as it descended. After five or six successful catches -she missed the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> twig. A comic sideways and downward glance at the twig, -falling and fallen, in meditative immobility; and then another twig -was broken off, and the same game repeated. She was very clever at -catching; the only bird that I have seen come up to her was a Toucan in -the Zoo which could catch grapes thrown at apparently any speed. But -then the Toucan had been specially trained—and had the advantage of a -huge capacity of bill!</p> - -<p>Here again it might, of course, be said that the catching of twigs is -a practice for beak and eye, and helps keep the bird in training for -the serious business of catching fish. This is no doubt true; but, as -regards the evolution of the habit, I incline strongly to the belief -that it must be quite secondary—that the bird, desirous of occupying -its restless self in a satisfying way, fell back upon a modification of -its everyday activities, just as these are drawn upon in other birds -to provide much of the raw material of courtship. There is no evidence -that young Darters play at catching twigs as preparation for their -fishing, and until there is evidence of this it is simpler to think -that the play habit here, instead of being rooted by the utilitarian -dictates of natural selection in the behaviour of the species, as with -kids or kittens, is a secondary outcome of leisure and restlessness -combining to operate with natural aptitude—in other words, true sport, -of however simple a kind.</p> - -<p>The commonest form of play in birds is flying play. Any one who has -kept his eyes open at the seaside<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> will have seen the Herring Gulls -congregate in soaring intersecting spirals where the cliff sends the -wind upwards. But such flights are nothing compared with those of other -birds. Even the staid black-coated Raven may sometimes be seen to go -through a curious performance. One I remember, all alone, flying along -the side of a mountain near Oban; but instead of progressing in the -conventional way, he flew diagonally upwards for a short distance, then -giving a special croak with something of gusto in it, turned almost -completely over on to his back, and descended a corresponding diagonal -in this position. Then with a strong flap of the wings he righted -himself, and so continued until he disappeared round the shoulder of -the hill half a mile on. It reminded me of a child who has learnt some -new little trick of step or dance-rhythm, and tries it out happily all -the way home along the road. Mr. Harold Massingham has seen the Ravens’ -games too, and set them down more vividly than I can.<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" >[26]</a> He also is -clear that they play for the love of playing, and even believes that -their love of sport has helped their downfall to rarity by rendering -them too easy targets for the gunner.</p> - -<p>Or again, at the Egret rookery in Louisiana, at evening when the birds -returned in great numbers, they came back with steady wing-beats along -an aerial stratum about two hundred feet up. Arrived over their nesting -pond, they simply let themselves drop. Their plumes flew up behind like -a comet’s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> tail; they screamed aloud with excitement; and, not far -above the level of the trees, spread the wings so that they caught the -air again, and as result skidded and side-slipped in the wildest and -most exciting-looking curves before recovering themselves with a brief -upward glide and settling carefully on the branches. This certainly had -no significance for courtship; and I never saw it done save over the -pond at the birds’ return. It seemed to be simply an entertaining bit -of sport grafted on to the dull necessity of descending a couple of -hundred feet.</p> - -<p>Examples could be multiplied: Rooks and Crows, our solemn English -Heron, Curlew, Swifts, Snipe—these and many others have their own -peculiar flying sports. What is clear to the watcher is the emotional -basis of these sports—a joy in controlled performance, and excitement -in rapidity of motion, in all essentials like the pleasure to us of a -well-hit ball at golf, or the thrill of a rapid descent on sledge skis.</p> - -<p>For any one to whom the evolution theory is one of the master-keys -to animate nature, there must be an unusual interest in tracing out -the development of lines of life that, like the birds’, have diverged -comparatively early from the line which eventually and through many -vicissitudes led to Man.</p> - -<p>In the birds as in the mammals, and quite separately in the two groups, -we see the evolution not only of certain structural characters such as -division of heart, compactness of skeleton, increase of brain-size, -not only of physiological characters like warm-bloodedness <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>or -efficiency of circulation, but also of various psychical characters. -The power of profiting by experience becomes greater, as does that of -distinguishing between objects; and there is most markedly an increase -in the intensity of emotion. It has somehow been of advantage, direct -or indirect, to birds to acquire a greater capacity for affection, for -jealousy, for joy, for fear, for curiosity. In birds the advance on the -intellectual side has been less, on the emotional side greater: so that -we can study in them a part of the single stream of life where emotion, -untrammelled by much reason, has the upper hand.</p> - -<h3>BIBLIOGRAPHY</h3> - -<blockquote><p>Chance, E., ’22. “The Cuckoo’s Secret.” London, 1922.</p> - -<p>Darwin, C., ’71. “The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to -Sex.” London, 1871.</p> - -<p>Groos, K., ’98. “The Play of Animals.” New York, 1898.</p> - -<p>Howard, E., ’20. “Territory in Bird Life.” London, 1920.</p> - -<p>Hudson, W. H., ’12. “The Naturalist in La Plata” (5th Ed.). -London, 1912.</p> - -<p>Huxley, J. S., ’14 and ’23. (Courtship in Birds) Proc. Zool. Soc., -1914, and Proc. Linn. Soc., 1923.</p> - -<p>Kirkman, F. B. (ed.), ’10. “British Bird Book.” London, 1910.</p> - -<p>Levick, G. M., ’14. “Antarctic Penguins.” London, 1914.</p> - -<p>Massingham, H. J., ’23. “The Ravens.” <i>Nation and Athenæum.</i> -London, 21st April, 1923.</p> - -<p>Selous, E., ’01. “Bird Watching.” London, 1901.</p> - -<p>Selous, E., ’05. “Bird Life Glimpses.” London, 1905.</p></blockquote> - -<h3>FOOTNOTE:</h3> - -<p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26">[26]</a> Massingham, ’23.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>IV</span> <span class="smaller">SEX BIOLOGY AND SEX PSYCHOLOGY</span></h2> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span></p> - -<p class="center">SEX: THREE WAYS</p> - -<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div>That body has for soul an air-balloon</div> -<div class="i1">Which drifts with every spiritual blast,</div> -<div class="i1">Doomed, swollen thing! to leak or burst at last</div> -<div>Though overmuch aspiring toward the moon.</div> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<div>This other soul, below the animal,</div> -<div class="i1">Bloating and coating body’s baser parts</div> -<div class="i1">With the manure of its desires and arts,</div> -<div>Helps flesh to grow still more corporeal.</div> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<div>I pray that I may still inhabit earth,</div> -<div class="i1">Where grass invites the foot, and roses smell;</div> -<div class="i1">Yet shall I lead my body on to dwell</div> -<div>In the eternal land of second birth,</div> -<div>If, nought contemned, each part of being’s whole</div> -<div>Is taken up in my transmuting soul.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span></p> - -<h2>SEX BIOLOGY AND SEX PSYCHOLOGY<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" >[27]</a></h2> - -<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div>“And now I see with eye serene</div> -<div>The very pulse of the machine.”</div> -<div class="i6">—<span class="smcap">W. Wordsworth.</span></div> -</div></div></div> - -<blockquote><p>“There is reason to believe that the processes which underlie -all great work in art, literature, or science take place -unconsciously, or at least unwittingly. It is an interesting -question to ask whence comes the energy of which this work is the -expression. There are two chief possibilities: one, that it is -derived from the instinctive tendencies which, through the action -of controlling forces, fail to find their natural outlet; the -other, that the energy so arising is increased in amount through -the conflict between controlled and controlling forces.”—<span class="smcap">W. -H. Rivers.</span></p></blockquote> - -<p>The biology of sex is a vast subject. Not only are there questions of -sex-determination, but the whole sexual selection problem has to be -considered, together with the evolutionary function of sex, and its -first origin. I can only attempt, in the short space at my disposal, to -deal with one or two of the chief points, and only in so far as they -bear on questions of human sex psychology.</p> - -<p>In the first place, then, we have to consider the evolutionary history -of sex. Of its origin we can say only that it is veiled in complete -obscurity. Once<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> present, however, it appears to have a definite -function by making possible, through sexual reproduction, all the -various combinations of any heritable variations that may arise -in different individuals of a species, and so conferring greater -evolutionary plasticity on the species as a whole.<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" >[28]</a></p> - -<p>Primarily, sex implies only the fusion of nuclei from two separate -individuals; there is no need for sex differences to exist at all. Sex -differences, however, are almost universal in sexually-reproducing -organisms, and represent a division of labour between the active male -cell and the passive female cell, the former taking over the task of -uniting the two, the latter storing up nutriment for the new individual -that will result from that union.</p> - -<p>The subsequent history of sex is, roughly speaking, the history of its -invasion of more and more of the organization of its possessors. First -the male as a whole, and not merely its reproductive cells, tends to -become organized for finding the female. The female’s whole type of -metabolism is altered to produce the most efficient storage of reserve -material in her ova, and later she almost invariably protects and -nourishes the young during the first part of their development, either -within or without her own body. Appropriate instincts are of course -developed in both male and female.</p> - -<p>At the outset there is enormous waste incurred in the liberation of -sperms and ova into the water, there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> to unite as best they may. -Congress of the sexes eliminates the major part of this waste, and is -universal above a certain level. This is in itself the basis for other -changes. As the mind, or shall we say the psycho-neural organization, -becomes more complex, the sexual instinct becomes more interwoven with -the general emotional state; and a large number of animals appear not -to mate unless their emotional state has been raised to a certain -level. The result of this is that special actions, associated generally -with bright colours or striking structures, with song or with scent, -come into being.</p> - -<p>The exact mechanism of the appearance of these courtship-displays is a -much-vexed point; but it is undoubted that they only occur in animals -with congress of the sexes and with minds above a certain level of -complexity, and that they are employed in ceremonies between the two -sexes at mating-time. There can subsist no reasonable doubt that there -exists some causal connection between the associated facts.</p> - -<p>An important point, which has been commonly overlooked, is that such -characters and actions may be either developed in one sex only, or in -both. In a large number of birds, such as egrets, grebes, cranes, and -many others, the courtship-displays are mutual, and the characters used -in them developed to a similar extent in both sexes. Such characters -are therefore often not secondary sexual differences, and we had best -use Poulton’s term <i>epigamic</i> for them,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> whether they are developed in -one or in both sexes.<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" >[29]</a></p> - -<p>The human species, in accordance with its complexity and flexibility -of brain, has epigamic characters of both kinds. Some, like voice and -moustache, are different in the two sexes, others, such as colour of -eyes and lips, the hairlessness of the body and grace of limbs and -carriage, are common to both.</p> - -<p>In the vertebrate stock, two main lines of evolution as regards -sexual relationships may be traced. The first is predominant in -mammals: here, in most species, the female will not receive the male -except at fixed times, which are determined by a purely physiological -mechanism, the internal secretion of the gonad (reproductive organ). -Here we consequently find that the rule is for the males to fight for -the possession of the females, not to display before them. In the -monkeys, presumably as a result of a lessened dependence of mental -upon physiological processes, bright colours and special adornments of -various parts of the body are frequently developed.<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" >[30]</a></p> - -<p>In the birds, on the other hand, although here too the internal -secretion of the gonad delimits a period in which alone congress of -the sexes can occur, it does not act for such a sharply-limited time -as in the mammal, nor is it so intense as completely to override -other components of the mind. As a result, general emotional stimulus -may play an important part in inducing readiness to pair, and we -accordingly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> find display of some sort, either by the male alone or by -both sexes, present in the great majority of species. It is at least -partly in correlation with this that beauty of voice and brilliant -appearance is far commoner in birds than in mammals.</p> - -<p>The monkeys represent in some way a transitional stage towards that -seen in man, in whom the conditions have come to resemble those found -in birds, with consequent great development of epigamic characters and -actions of one sort and another, both physical and mental. Thus we see -that sex, after invading and altering the conformation of the body, -finally invades and alters the conformation of the mind.</p> - -<p>As regards the other great biological question, of the determination of -sex, a very few words will suffice. In the first place I have no time -to consider plants or lower animals. In almost all higher animals that -have been investigated, however, there has been found some hereditary -mechanism for ensuring a rough constancy of sex-ratio. This mechanism -resides in the so-called <i>chromosomes</i> of the nucleus. These exist -for the most part in similar pairs in both sexes: but one pair is -dissimilar in one sex. In mammals and man this sex is the male. Man -possesses one chromosome less than woman. He possesses only one member -of this pair of special sex-chromosomes, whereas she possesses two. All -her ova are alike in possessing one, whereas half his sperms possess -one, half possess none. Therefore, when the former kind of sperms -fertilize an ovum, two sex-chromosomes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> are present in the fertilized -egg and a female results; when the latter, only one, and the offspring -is male.<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" >[31]</a></p> - -<p>Putting the matter in the broadest terms, we can say that there is a -different balance of hereditary factors in male and female, and that -this difference of balance dates from the moment of fertilization, and -normally determines sex.</p> - -<p>Various agencies may alter the balance. The chromosomes themselves may -vary in what we must vaguely call their potency; or external agencies -may affect it. As a result, we sometimes obtain strange abnormal -individuals, in which the balance has been upset; in them development -results sometimes in organisms permanently intermediate between male -and female, sometimes in a change of sex at some period of development.</p> - -<p>In insects the chromosomes appear to be predominant throughout life. -In vertebrates, however, they seem to play their chief rôle in early -development, ending by building up either a male or a female gonad in -the early embryo. This, once produced, takes over what remains of the -task of sex-determination. It secretes a specific internal secretion -which in a male acts so as to encourage the growth of male organs and -instincts, to suppress those of females; and vice versa in a female.</p> - -<p>As a result of this difference we find that castration in insects, even -followed by engrafting of a gonad of opposite sex, produces no effect -upon other sexual<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> characters; whereas it exerts a profound effect upon -mammals or birds.</p> - -<p>As a second result, we find that in vertebrates the gonads form part -of what has been called the chemical directorate of the body—the -interlocking system of endocrine glands, each of which is exerting an -effect upon the rest. The importance of this is seen in the experiments -of Steinach, Sand, Voronoff, and others, who have been able to obtain -a rejuvenating effect in senile mammals by increasing, by various -methods, the amount of secreting reproductive organ in the body.<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" >[32]</a></p> - -<p>To what then has our rapid survey led us? The actual origin of sex -is lost to us in the mists of a time inconceivably remote. Its -preservation once in existence, and its present all-but-universal -distribution seem to be definitely associated with the biological -advantage of the plasticity which it confers. Later, the primary -difference between male and female—their power of producing different -sorts of reproductive cells—leads on to secondary differences. -These differences may be biologically speaking non-significant, mere -accidents of the primary difference. Or they may be in the nature -of a division of labour between the sexes, this division of labour -usually concerning the protection of the embryo or the care of the -young, or more rarely the preservation of the individual itself. Or, -finally, they may concern the more efficient union of the gametes; -such differences<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> may merely affect the ducts and apertures of the -reproductive system, and be more or less mechanical; or they may -concern the use of these systems, in the form of still mechanical -instincts, or they may be concerned in some way or other with the -emotional side of the animals, and consist in characters and actions -which stimulate the emotions of the other sex, characters which we have -termed epigamic.</p> - -<p>It is only in higher groups that these emotion-stimulating sexual -characters arise, for only in them has mind reached a sufficient degree -of perfection. But even though detailed study reveals in a bird or a -mammal a mental life of a complexity far more considerable than the -average man would imagine, yet on the whole it is straightforward and -its currents run fairly direct from stimulus to fulfilment.</p> - -<p>When we reach man, however, the whole aspect of the matter changes. -The change is most marked, naturally, in his mental organization. -Through his powers of rapid and unlimited association, any one part of -his experience can be combined with any other; through his powers of -generalizing and of giving names to things, his experience is far more -highly organized than that of any animal; through speech and writing he -is inheritor of a continuous tradition which enormously enlarges his -range of experience. Again, he can frame a purpose and thus put the -objective of his actions far further into the future than can lower -organisms.</p> - -<p>There are, however, also changes of considerable<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> biological importance -on the physical side. Man brings with him from his animal ancestors -the endocrine secretory mechanism of the reproductive organs: but his -life is not subordinated to it in such an iron-bound way. To start with -he has gradually lost all semblance of a breeding-season. Traces of -it survive in some primitive races, but in civilized communities all -one can say is that the number of births may show a slight seasonal -variation; and the reproductive organs are capable of function in all -twelve months of the year—a state of affairs known, I believe, in no -other vertebrate, or at least in no wild species.<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" >[33]</a></p> - -<p>In the second place, there has been in the female a further -emancipation of the sexual life. In all other mammals the female will -only receive the male at certain well-defined periods, which in their -turn depend on cyclical changes in the ovaries. In man this restriction -has been overcome, and, in spite of the survival of a certain degree -of cyclical change in feeling, neither sex is restricted any longer -to certain physically-determined periods for the consummation of its -sexual life. This is, we may say, a triumph of mind over matter in the -human organism, of the mental elements of the sexual life over the -purely physical elements.</p> - -<p>This is not to deny that the sexual life of man is dependent upon -the reproductive hormones. It is apparently necessary for proper -activation of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> sexual centres in the brain that there should occur -a continuous liberation of secretion from the reproductive organs -into the blood. Again, the mental activities of man are so much more -important than those of other forms that even the cessation of activity -of the reproductive organs, for instance in the female at the change of -life, or even their total removal, need not prevent the continuation, -albeit in a modified form, of the sexual life in its varied indirect -manifestations.</p> - -<p>Before attempting to probe the intricacies of the mental side of the -subject, we had better see what we can learn of the physical. Let -us first remind ourselves of one or two facts gained from animal -experimentation. In the first place, in mammals the activation of the -sexual instincts of one or the other sex appears to be completely -or almost completely under the control of the internal secretions -of the reproductive organs. Steinach and others have taken new-born -male guinea-pigs and have removed their testes and grafted ovaries -in their place. The result has been an animal almost completely -feminized both as regards body and mind. In some of the animals milk -was secreted, and when this occurred they would act as foster-mothers -to new-born guinea-pigs of other parents. The reverse operation, the -masculinization of females, was equally successful, the animals growing -large and showing all the instincts of a normal male and none of those -of a normal female.</p> - -<p>A similar dependence of behaviour on gonad is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> seen in fowls. Here -nature makes a number of experiments, which have recently been studied -by Dr. Crew of Edinburgh. When the ovaries of a hen are affected by a -certain type of tumour, the bird stops laying, her comb and wattles -enlarge to the size of a cock’s, her spurs grow, she begins to crow, -her plumage changes at the moult and becomes cock-like, and finally -she becomes indistinguishable from a male. Indistinguishable, even in -behaviour: her years of feminine routine in laying and brooding are -forgotten: the secretion of the altered ovary now apparently resembles -that of a testis and stimulates centres of the brain which would -otherwise have remained permanently dormant. She struts and crows, -fights and mates, and the memory of the previous part of her life is -for all practical purposes lost, since the centres for female activity -are no longer stimulated at all.</p> - -<p>Various workers have even experimentally produced a state of -hermaphroditism in mammals by simultaneous grafting of portions of -testes and ovary: the behaviour here oscillates between male and -female.<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" >[34]</a></p> - -<p>It is quite clear from these and other facts that in higher vertebrates -there are present in every individual of either sex the nervous -connections which give the possibility of either male or female -behaviour; but that normally only one of these two possibilities is -realized, since for the potentiality of action given by the nervous -connections to become<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> actual as behaviour it is necessary for the -nervous system to be activated by the secretion of one or other of -the reproductive organs. Castrated animals fail to realize either -possibility of normal sex-behaviour, although their nervous machinery -is untouched.</p> - -<p>There are, further, some facts of observation which, even if they have -not yet been fully analysed by experiment, still throw light on the -matter. Although many of the most familiar birds—fowls, pheasant, -peacock, duck, finches, and so forth—have bright-coloured males and -drab females, with marked difference of behaviour between the sexes, -there are, as we have seen, many others, such as herons, divers, swans, -grebes, moorhens, and auks, in which the sexes are alike in plumage -and furthermore show what may be called a “mutual” courtship in which -both male and female play similar rôles. In this latter class it seems -clear that the secretions of the male and female reproductive organs -must be more alike than in the markedly dimorphic species: and this -is borne out by some strange facts regarding not merely the courtship -but the actions concerned with pairing itself. In the crested grebe -and the little grebe, for example, close observation has shown that -either member of the pair may assume the passive “female” attitude or -the active “male” attitude in pairing: and in the moorhen we meet with -the still more extraordinary phenomenon of double pairing, in which an -act of pairing with male and female in normal <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>position is immediately -followed by a second act in which the normal position is reversed.<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" >[35]</a> -It would appear in such cases that the similarity of male and female -internal secretion is so great that quite slight changes in nervous or -metabolic activity can cause the nervous centres for the opposite sex’s -mode of behaviour to become activated.</p> - -<p>In human beings we are confronted with various grades of sexual -organization and behaviour besides the typically feminine and the -typically masculine. In the first place it is matter of common -knowledge that many women, who so far as their physical reproductive -capacity goes are perfectly normal, show various mental traits which -are more characteristic of men, and vice versa. What is more, the -“masculinoid” woman (to use the current jargon) tends physically -also to be less feminine, to have the feminine secondary sexual -characteristics in stature, form of skeleton, distribution of fat, -breasts, etc.—less strongly developed than normal, while the -“feminoid” man shows the reverse tendency.<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" >[36]</a></p> - -<p>In trying to analyse these facts further, we are brought up against new -depths of complication. It is becoming ever clearer that the gonads do -not operate as independent organs, but in conjunction with the whole -of the rest of the endocrine system—thyroid, pituitary, adrenal, and -the rest. In the first place, it seems to be established that the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>reproductive organs must be in some way activated by other ductless -glands before they become normal, just as they in their turn must -activate the sexual centres in the brain. This phase of the matter is -being investigated by many workers to-day; provisionally we may say -that pituitary and adrenal cortex are especially concerned. In the -second place the gonads, once activated and in normal working order, -react upon the other ductless glands. It thus comes about that the -relative proportion or relative activity of the parts of the whole -ductless gland system is different in male and female. Blair Bell is -the protagonist of this view. A woman is a woman, he says, not merely -because of her ovaries, but because of all her internal secretions, of -her endocrine balance as a whole.</p> - -<p>It cannot be said that we have any certainty on the details of this -subject. It is clear, however, that some such fundamental difference -does exist, and it is therefore further probable that if a woman has a -thyroid, say, or an adrenal which for some reason (and there are many -possible reasons) is producing an amount of secretion abnormal for a -woman but more like that which is produced by a man, she will, in spite -of her ovaries, be more masculine in tendency.</p> - -<p>I will content myself with one example. The cortex of the adrenal -gland, if active beyond a certain measure, assists the development -of male, prevents the development of female, characters. Women<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> with -adrenal tumours frequently develop moustache and beard and other -appanages of the male. One presumes that a slight preponderance of the -adrenal cortex in the normal endocrine make-up will lead to a less -feminine type of woman than normal. I repeat that we are but on the -verge of the matter and that premature speculation is certainly risky -and probably fallacious. But all the same, there is very little doubt -that we are on the right track, and that we shall have to search for -the finer shades of temperamental difference between man and woman -not so much in differences in the quality of the secretion of testis -or ovary as in differences of balance in what the Americans call the -“endocrine make-up.”<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" >[37]</a></p> - -<p>There is, however, also the possibility of difference in the quality -of gonad secretion, and of recent years Steinach and his followers -have been claiming that this may be at the bottom of many cases of -so-called “perversion of sexual instinct.” The latest claim of this -school is that homosexual men may be rendered heterosexual in instinct -by removal of their testes and implantation of a testis from a sexually -normal person—from a man, for example, who is being operated on for -cryptorchidism. It is frankly impossible as yet to say whether their -conclusions are well founded: a very much larger series of cases -will be necessary, and the possibility of suggestion’s action must -be eliminated. It is well to remember, however, that there is no -theoretical objection to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> possibility. We know that in various -lower animals, such as moths and flies, the balance between the -male- and female-determining factors in the chromosomes may be altered in -certain crosses, and that this altered balance in the constitution -is reflected in some cases in a state permanently intermediate -between male and female, in others by a reversal of sex at some point -during development. For various reasons we should not usually expect -reversal in mammals; but if such abnormal balance should exist in the -constitution, as it well might, we should expect a gonad secreting an -abnormal, intermediate secretion. This we might also expect as the -result of certain accidents of embryonic life, as actually happens in -the abnormal female cattle known to farmers as free-martins. These -animals are always born co-twin to a male, and their abnormality is due -to the blood-systems of the embryonic membranes of the twins having -fused, so that the secretion of the developing male’s gonad acts upon -the developing female.</p> - -<p>Further light on abnormally-directed sex-instinct is thrown by recent -analysis of abnormal domestic animals by Crew.<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" >[38]</a> In both goats and -swine he finds that by far the commonest form of sexual abnormality is -one in which the external appearance, at least in youth, is so nearly -female as to raise no question in the mind of the casual observer; -about the time of maturity, however, male secondary sex<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> characters -begin to develop, including male instincts; and dissection reveals -the presence of a double set of ducts—the female uterus and vagina, -the male epididymis and vas deferens, but only a single uniform -reproductive organ, and that always a testis. The simplest explanation -(although it is admittedly tentative) appears to be that the testis -has not been activated during embryonic and juvenile life, and that -therefore until puberty the animal, though really male, has been -physiologically in a neutral state, which permits the growth of the -internal apparatus proper to both sexes. Externally, the “neutral” -condition approximates more closely to the female type, and the animal -is thus first classed as a female. Some other gland is then responsible -for the second activation at puberty, and this occurs in a normal -manner.</p> - -<p>This is of considerable interest, since it appears that in man too the -largest class of sexually abnormal individuals are those whose external -appearance is almost or quite feminine, but who possess male instincts. -It is at least probable that examination will show that they, too, or -many of them, will be of the type described above—males with delayed -activation of testis, a consequent classification as female at birth, -and a girl’s upbringing, with male instincts arising in the unhappy -creature at puberty.</p> - -<p>It is the fashion nowadays to write down abnormal sexual psychology -wholly to the account of the mind, to an abnormal development with -causes entirely<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> psychological. It is clear, however, that if some -abnormal individuals can be cured by implantation, and others are -abnormal owing to an early failure of activation, this conception falls -to the ground, and the Freudian is robbed of some of his most cherished -examples.</p> - -<p>In any case, the work on animals definitely shows that, unless the -mechanism of activation of instinct by gonad secretion has altered -between animal and man more than we have any right to postulate a -priori, the quality of gonad secretion and the balance of all the -endocrines has to be taken into account far more than is done by the -average psycho-analyst.</p> - -<p>This, however, is not to say that the genesis of our attitude towards -sex, our sexual behaviour, and our general mental organization in so -far as modified by sex, is not normally determined for the most part -by purely psychological causes. If there is a physical abnormality, -this will react upon the mental; but in the vast majority of cases -the physical variation will not take the individual beyond the limits -of normality, and when the normal physical limits are not exceeded, -the wide range of mental variation still observable is to be ascribed -to psychological causes. In other words, abnormal sexual behaviour -and instinct may be due either to physiological or psychological -abnormality, and the latter is probably the commoner cause.</p> - -<p>I am not competent to attempt to treat of the vast and complex -psychological aspect of the sex-problem<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> which the analytical -psychologists have opened up to such an extent within the last few -years; I can only deal with it in the broadest way, and content myself -rather with stating than with solving problems.</p> - -<p>As regards the place of sex in our mental organization, there are two -contradictory extremes possible. Either all ideas connected with the -physical side of sex may be repressed with great vehemence, and the -sexual contribution to various emotions ignored or dismissed, while a -constant attempt is made at sublimation; or else there is little or no -repression beyond that necessitated by convention and custom, sexual -matters are taken at their physical face value, and sublimation is not -consciously attempted and exists only to a negligible amount.</p> - -<p>There is no doubt that the first alternative represents one of the -commonest neuroses of modern life, and one in which an interpretation -on principles made familiar by psycho-analysis is the most -satisfactory. Repression, through whatever cause initiated (and -psychologists, I understand, are coming more and more to recognize -that chronic misuse of the mind as well as single violent shocks may -be effective), leads to a more or less complete dissociation of two -parts of the mind, of which one only is in the main connected with -the conscious personal life. As a result, curious phenomena are met -with. There is, it is true, a constant effort necessary to keep life -a-going with the aid of an incomplete <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>mental organization; but when -satisfaction is attained, its very rarity brings with it a certain -glow, an irradiation of peculiarly pleasurable nature. Furthermore, -dissociation in most cases is not complete; now and again, and -especially when there is successful sublimation—in some people when in -love, in others with religious ecstasy, in others again with some form -of art—now and again re-association of the parts occurs, and there is -an extraordinary sense of the irruption of some vast beneficent force, -some great extra-personal flood of soul, into the meagre stream of -everyday life. The lives of a certain number of saints and ascetics, -mystics and poets, abound with phenomena of this sort; and apparently -the sense of value attaching to the occasional complete attainment of -such satisfactory states of the soul, combined with the conscious daily -quest for sublimation which is inevitable when the most important part -of the primitive emotions are repressed, is such a vivid experience -that it satisfies the mind and enables such persons to carry on, and to -do work sometimes of the highest value.</p> - -<p>On the other hand, men and women with this type of mental development -naturally tend to be unstable; they cannot be sure of their capacity, -whether for routine work or creative thought or spiritual experience, -from day to day. Their mental life has a tendency to wear thin, their -sense of effort and struggle to increase and lead to breakdown. It -is in the long run an unsatisfactory way of organizing the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> psyche, -because the conscious mind has less than it ought to have upon which to -fall back.</p> - -<p>The opposite extreme is equally unsatisfactory. If individuals of the -first type are trying to build high without adequate foundations, those -of the second are mistaking the foundations for a complete building. -A dissociation of a different type occurs in them—a dissociation due -to lack of use, to a mere failure to connect up that part of the mind -concerned with sexual emotion with a great many of the mind’s other -activities. Thus the sexual side has few and lower values associated -with it than it might, and other possibilities of thought and feeling -and action remain as mere possibilities, never realized in actuality. -The result is a definitely incomplete personality of a more or less -arrested or rudimentary type.</p> - -<p>Those are the extremes: of course there are all intermediates between -them. They may crop up with apparent spontaneity, determined more -by the hereditary constitution of the man or woman than by external -happenings: or they may be mainly or at least largely determined by the -accidents of the environment during the period before maturity. One -of the most potent factors in the environment will be the attitude of -the parents towards sexual matters. On the one hand they may adopt the -common, horror-stricken attitude towards sex, hushing it up, making -it clear to the sensitive mind of childhood that there is something -thoroughly bad about<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> it, and so laying the best possible foundations -for future repression. Or, on the other hand, they may openly adopt -the psycho-analytic view as to the rôle of sex in the development of -mind, may further believe that the fullest analysis and self-knowledge -is always desirable, and may accordingly be pointing out to the -child interpretations of its actions and sayings in terms of sex, -familiarizing it with sex from the outset, not merely not discouraging -but actually encouraging reference to sexual matters. This will tend, -<i>ceteris paribus</i>, to the development of a mind in which many of the -more complex mental operations will not usually persist because the -subject will be continually unbuilding them into their constituent -parts, of which sex will be the most unvarying and important.</p> - -<p>Both these types are to my judgment obviously unsatisfactory. The ideal -organization of the mind must be one in which first there is a minimum -of waste of energy, secondly a maximum realization of potentiality. -The operations of mind may further be thought of from two different -angles—a subserving the biological needs of the organism, or as -ends in themselves. From the first point of view, thought is action -<i>in posse</i>: efficiency and full utilization of energy are here the -requirements, and it is obvious that any method which even partially -separates one part of the mental organization from the rest must be a -poor one, that a refusal to face any portion of reality, such as, in -our special case, the physical side<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> of sex, must put the organism at a -disadvantage in a world in which that portion of reality plays, as it -obviously does, an important rôle.</p> - -<p>The correct type of organization is one of the type which has been -developed over and over again in the course of evolution, for -different functions: it is the hierarchical one, in which some parts -are dominant, others subordinate, the dominant parts helpless without -the subordinate, the subordinate different, through the fact of their -subordination, from what they would otherwise have been, doing most of -the hard work, but under the guidance of the dominant. Only in this way -is a unitary organization arrived at in which there is the minimum of -waste, of antagonism between the parts.</p> - -<p>The psycho-analysts have, by analysing the pathology of mind, shown -us how waste of energy may arise in particular cases, and so make it -easier for us to avoid it in general.</p> - -<p>One may recognize the merits of Freud as an investigator without -accepting all or even the majority of his conclusions. As the late -W. H. Rivers pointed out, Freud will always be remembered in the -history of psychology because he introduced new ideas and new methods -into the science. Previous workers had discovered the realm of the -subconscious; but they had not discovered the real nature of its -relation to the rest of the mental organization. Freud pointed out -that there was often a biological value attached to the power of -forgetting as well as to that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> of remembering, and that in any case -in most of us a large amount of experience is rendered unconscious by -suppression, or an attempt made to force it into the unconscious by -repression. He and his followers and other schools of psychologists -have pointed out the importance of unresolved conflicts in determining -thought and behaviour, and have made it clear that in the ordinary -civilized community of to-day a large proportion of those conflicts -arise out of difficulties connected with the sex-instinct. And, even -if we reject the extreme claims made by many Freudians, we must admit -that psycho-analysis has shown that many cases of actual perversion -of instinct may be cured by analytic methods, and that sex occupies a -very much larger space in the mind than was previously supposed. It -had not been previously supposed, because of the fact that it tends to -appear in consciousness in disguised form—either sublimated and thus -intertwined with other emotions and instincts or with unusual objects, -or else rationalized as something else, or kept below the surface of -consciousness as an unfulfilled wish; and because there is a resistance -in most of us to recognizing its importance.</p> - -<p>This revolution in our thought has proved very unpalatable to many. In -just the same way as a large proportion of Darwin’s opponents opposed -him because they believed that to accept man’s simian origin was a -repulsive degradation, so many of the opponents of psycho-analysis -oppose it because they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> believe that to ascribe this huge rôle to sex -in the genesis of our psyche is a repulsive degradation.</p> - -<p>To my mind there are two very general questions which the student of -human sex psychology now has to face, if he takes not necessarily -the whole but the central theses of psycho-analysis, however much -pruned, as proven. The first is this: granted that sex does play such -a large part, especially in early years, in the genesis of our mental -organization, is it desirable that the average adult or adolescent -should, by analysis, be given full self-knowledge on the subject?</p> - -<p>The second is this: granted that sex does penetrate into more corners -of mind in man than in lower organisms, is this really a regrettable -thing, or can we find any grounds for believing it to be desirable or -biologically progressive?</p> - -<p>To answer this we shall have to go back a little to first principles, -and consider, however briefly, certain facts as to the march of -evolution.</p> - -<p>Evolution is essentially progressive. It proceeds on the whole in -a certain direction, and that direction is on the whole towards a -realization of what seems to us to have positive value. The direction, -however, as a matter of fact, is most striking when we consider the -maximum level attained, much less so when we consider the average, not -at all when we look at the minimum.</p> - -<p>The method or mechanism of progress may differ in different types, -and it does differ in man from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> that which is found in other mammals. -In most higher animals progress is brought about chiefly by natural -selection operating upon individuals, although in a few forms selection -operates chiefly upon groups of communities: in both cases the changes -in the inherited constitution of the species are the important -changes. In man, however, in all except the very early stages of -his development, changes in inherited constitution have been small -and unimportant, and the chief changes of evolutionary significance -have been those in tradition; selection among individuals has been -of relatively little importance, and selection has fallen mainly -upon groups and, to an ever-increasing extent, upon their ideas and -traditions.</p> - -<p>In spite of differences in method as between different types of -organism, the tendency has been in the same direction—towards -a possibility of greater control, greater independence, greater -complexity, and greater regulation or harmony.</p> - -<p>Looked at from the evolutionary point of view, the moving, dynamic -point of view, we have to think of human sex-psychology in yet another -way. So far we have been treating it as what it is; now we must think -of what it may become.</p> - -<p>The general rule in evolution—the natural and obvious rule—is that -acquisitions are not thrown away when change occurs, but built upon, -utilized for some new function. The endostyle of the lowest chordates, -part of a very primitive type of feeding<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> mechanism, was converted, -when they changed their mode of life, into the thyroid gland: the -parathyroids develop from the remains of the gill-apparatus when -gills are discarded for lungs: the secondary sexual differences which -originate as accidental consequence of the primary difference between -the sexes are, over and over again, elaborated into special characters -employed in courtship.</p> - -<p>So the sex-instinct and its associated emotion, at first simply one -among a number of separate and scarcely-correlated instincts, has in -man become the basis for numerous new mental functions. It can enter -into the composition of various emotions, though its character is often -disguised and its presence often undetected. It contributes to some of -the most exalted states of mind which we can experience. The sexual -relationship, which in lower animals involves neither contact nor even -propinquity, but simply simultaneous discharge of reproductive cells, -and in most animals is a purely temporary affair, is very different -in man. Even in those birds and non-human mammals in which the sexes -remain associated for long periods or permanently, the different -departments of life are more in water-tight compartments, the psychical -activity is subordinate to the physiological: in man the physiological -side, though of course still basic and necessary, is more—and can -be much more—subordinate to the psychological, and all parts of the -mental life interpenetrate to a much greater extent; so that the -sex-instinct<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> may become transformed by a psychological process roughly -analogous to the transformation of physical energy, and reappear in -altered guise in various other activities of mind.</p> - -<p>If we look at the matter broadly, we see that man is in a period of -evolutionary transition as regards sex. We found previously that the -greatest change connected with sex which has been made in the evolution -of higher animals was the change by which there was evolved a brain -and mind with associated sense-organs in which accurate perception of -objects at a distance could occur, a mechanism which really dominated -the working of the organism as a whole, and in which memory and emotion -seemed to play an important part. Once this happened, the sex-instinct -could be linked up with general emotional reactions and connected with -external objects capable of inducing emotion.</p> - -<p>What was the result? That in every group possessing such a type of -mind, epigamic characters of a beautiful or striking or bizarre -nature were evolved. This first linking-up of sex with mind produced, -eventually, a large proportion of the beauty of the organic world. It -coloured and adorned not only many a bird, but even newts and fish -and spiders; it helped elicit song and music from mere sounds and -noises; it moulded our own bodies, coloured our lips and eyes, and -everywhere helped in adding grace to mere serviceableness; it saw to it -that, as St. Paul puts it, “even our uncomely parts<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> have an abundant -comeliness.” But, as we have just pointed out, its connection with the -mind’s higher centres was in all pre-human forms still temporary, under -the control of cyclical physiological changes, and the mind as a whole -was still constructed in compartments, so that different instincts -and different experiences did not necessarily or even usually come in -contact with each other.</p> - -<p>The next great change is being made now; it concerns a further -development of mind and a consequent fresh mode of connection of sex -with mental life. As we have outlined above, this change in mind -consists in the tendency towards uniting the different parts of the -psyche, both those portions given by heredity and the modification due -to experience, into a single organic whole, and in making this whole -more dominant over the other aspects of the organism; the consequent -tendency as regards the relationship of sex to the organism is towards -taking it out of its single groove, its water-tight compartment, and -bringing it into more complete and more permanent union with the rest -of the mind. Furthermore, the main change and the consequent change as -regards sex are both of a biologically progressive nature.</p> - -<p>We are now, I think, owing to our taking this broad biological view, -in a better position to make up our minds as to some at least of the -difficulties which beset us to-day in any attempt to deal squarely -with the relation of sex to human life. It is true<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> that some of -these difficulties are permanent. The synthesis of a unitary and -comprehensive mental organization can never be an easy task. The -child is endowed with a number of instinctive tendencies which, as -in animals, each tend whenever aroused to occupy the whole mental -field to the exclusion of all others, producing divergence and lack -of co-ordination instead of unity and organization. Then again, the -experience of any one individual may be highly unusual. For the child -to co-ordinate his various tendencies with each other and with his -own experience and with the tradition and experience of the race must -always be difficult, and there will always be some failures.</p> - -<p>There is another permanent difficulty, a biological disharmony, in the -fact that sexual maturity in man comes several years before general -maturity, and that again, at least in any state of civilization which -we can at present imagine as practicable, several years before the -economic possibility of marriage. There will always be crises of -adolescence; there will always be suffering and difficulty due to this -disharmony in time between the origin of the full sexual instinct and -the possibility of its proper satisfaction.</p> - -<p>However, granted these permanent difficulties, there are others which -may be reduced or made to disappear. Granted that we have to organize -our minds into a whole, we can see the general plan on which we -should aim at organizing it. We must aim first at having no barriers -between different<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> parts of the mind. Every attempt must be made in -the education of children to prevent there being a stigma attached -to one whole section of mental life, and so to avoid its partial or -total dissociation from the rest. On the other hand, the absence of -barriers does not imply the absence of any relation of subordination or -dominance of one part to another. One of the most important biological -generalizations is that progressive evolution is accompanied by the -rise of one part to dominance and, whenever there are many parts to be -considered, by the arrangement of the rest in some form of hierarchy, -each part being subordinate to one above, dominant to one below. It -is such a hierarchy which we must try to construct in our mental -organization.</p> - -<p>It is obviously impossible here to go into the whole question of -values and ideals, but it is clear to any one who has given the -briefest reflection to the subject that there are certain values, -æsthetic, intellectual, and moral, which are ultimate for the mind of -man, certain ideals—of truth and honesty, intellectual satisfaction, -righteousness or at least freedom from the sense of sin or guilt, -completeness and self-realization, unselfishness and serviceableness -and so forth—which (though perhaps in varying proportions) are by -common consent accepted as the highest: and further that the greater -the attempt to deepen and broaden these, to increase their mental -intensity and to widen their range and association, the more they -tend to emerge into something <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span>increasingly unitary, in which it is -seen that honesty is also beautiful and useful, that intellectual -satisfaction is in the long run serviceable to the community, that -unselfishness to be effective requires thought and will besides mere -altruistic emotion, that one of the greatest aids to any genuine -righteousness is an æsthetic love of beautiful things that prevents our -doing ugly things, and so <i>ad infinitum</i>.</p> - -<p>The proper way, then, to build the sex instinct into the mental system -is not to have its stimulation cause a merely physiological and -uninhibited desire for its gratification, nor to bring about a forcible -repression and an attempt to break connection between it and the other -parts of the mind.</p> - -<p>The desirable method is to have free connection between it and the -dominant ideas, so that its stimulation brings about a stimulation of -them too. This leads, as a matter of experience, to the incorporation -of the sexual emotion in the dominant ideas, or we had better say an -interpenetration of one with the other, so that the sexual emotion is -no longer simply sexual emotion, but is become part of something very -much larger and very much better. Let the great writers say in their -few words what I should say much worse in many.</p> - -<p>Wordsworth’s “sense sublime of something far more deeply interfused” -opens a window on to the general process of sublimation: and Blake’s -description of the physical union of the sexes as “that ... on which -the soul expands her wing” is an epitome<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> of a particular aspect of -our particular problem. Or again, when St. Paul says “Am I not free?” -or “All things are lawful unto me,” he means that by subordinating all -sides of himself to his highest ideals, he has reached that state in -which what he does is right to him because he only wants to do what -is right. (True that, as he himself confesses, he is not always able -to keep in that state: but when he is in it, he attains that complete -freedom which is the subordination of lower to higher desire.)</p> - -<p>Physiologically speaking, the activation of the sex instinct, when the -connection is made in this way, arouses the higher centres, and these -react upon the centres connected with the sex instinct, modifying their -mode of action. The nett result is thus that both act simultaneously -to produce a single whole of a new type. Processes of this nature -are common in the nervous system, as has been shown for instance by -Hughlings Jackson, Head, and Rivers.<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" >[39]</a></p> - -<p>Thus the higher, dominant parts of the mind are strengthened by their -connection with such lower parts as the simple sex instinct, and the -sex instinct is able to play a rôle in any operation of the mind, -however exalted, in which emotion is in any way concerned. Rivers -believes that the actual conflict between controlled and controlling -parts of the mind is a potent generator of mental “energy”; and adds, -“whatever be the source of the energy, however, we can be confident -that by the process of sublimation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> the lives upon which it is expended -take a special course, and in such case it is not easy to place any -limit to its activity. We do not know how high the goal that it may -reach.”<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" >[40]</a></p> - -<p>The change is thus on the one side from the relative independence of -the sex instinct towards its subordination to a position in a hierarchy -of mental process, but on the other from a rigid limitation of its -scope towards a greater universality by establishing connections with -all other parts of the mind. Further, there is also a change towards -greater dominance and “self-determination” of the mental as against the -physical.</p> - -<p>A great many of the difficulties which beset us, both as individuals -and as communities, come from the fact that both these changes are only -in process of being made, and are (even approximately) complete only in -a very small number of persons.</p> - -<p>Lack of restraint is failure to construct a properly-working hierarchy. -That is a very simple example. Less easy to analyse but equally -vicious, are the innumerable cases in which some sort of equilibrium -is only attained not by a free interaction of dominant and subordinate -parts, but by repression. Conflicts arise, which persist, either in an -open form or in the subterranean regions of the unconscious. In either -case they tend to be projected by the subject into his ideas of other -people. This projection, or interpretation of external reality in terms -of one’s self, is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> a curious and almost universal attribute of the -human mind. The most familiar example is perhaps the anthropomorphism -which in religion after religion has invested the powers of the -universe with human form, human mental process, human personality—or -at least with form, mind, and personality similar to those of man; -while a very simple case is that in which certain neurotic types -project their depression so as to colour everything that comes into -their cognizance a gloomy black.</p> - -<p>In the sphere of sex this process is, alas, most potently at work. The -man in whom the sexual instinct still lives a more or less independent, -uninhibited life of its own, tends—unless he has special evidence to -the contrary, and often even then—to interpret the behaviour and the -minds of others in the terms familiar to himself, and to suppose that -they too must be stopped by the fear of punishment or of loss of caste -if they are not to commit excesses.</p> - -<p>On the other hand, those in whom there is a constant conflict with a -sexual origin project it here, there, and everywhere into the breasts -of those they know, and interpret others’ motives in terms of their own -repressed wishes.</p> - -<p>Furthermore, most of our existing laws and customs are based on a -state of society in which the changes to which we have referred had -not progressed as far as they have to-day, and man’s psychology was a -little less removed from that of other mammals.</p> - -<p>The result is that those who attempt the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span>complete emancipation -possible to a properly-organized mind are confronted first by the lag -of our institutions and traditions, and secondly by the unconcealed -suspicion of all those—and they are as yet the large majority—in -which the conflicts arising out of sex are unresolved. It is from the -sum of those conflicts that the spirit prevalent with regard to sex -to-day derives its character—shocked and shamefaced as regards one’s -own sexual life, vindictive and grudging as regards the difficulties -of others. The bulk of men and women cannot treat sexual problems in a -scientific spirit, because of the store of bottled-up emotion in the -wrong place that they have laid up for themselves by their failure to -come to proper terms with their sexual instincts. The soul should grow -to deserve the words Crashaw wrote of St. Theresa—“O thou undaunted -daughter of desires!” But this the soul of such disharmonic beings can -never do.</p> - -<p>This brings us to our other pressing question. Should the results -of psycho-analytic methods, the knowledge that the sex instinct is -fundamental and is interwoven into the roots of the highest spiritual -activities—should the inculcation and demonstration of this be part -of education? Some would say yes, and would argue that to know oneself -is essential to a proper realization of one’s capacities. Personally I -am extremely doubtful of the correctness of this answer. Knowledge of -the processes of digestion is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> not necessary to digest well—so long as -we go on digesting well: it is only necessary when we digest badly. In -that case the processes involved are automatic: but even in processes -which require a great deal of learning, we find a similar state of -affairs. A man can become expert at, say, a game requiring the most -delicate adjustments of hand and eye without analysing the processes -he employs, but by practising them as finished articles, so to speak; -and it is equally obvious that Shakespeare and Shelley and Blake and -other great writers produced their works without the least analytical -knowledge of the obscure and rather unpleasant processes which, if we -are to believe the critics who psycho-analyse dead authors in the pages -of Freudian journals, were “really” at work below the surface. Analysis -constitutes a serious surgical operation for the mind, and, as one of -the leading Austrian psycho-analysts has recently said, we do not want -to perform this operation on healthy people any more than we want to -open their abdomens merely for the sake of seeing that their viscera -are normal.</p> - -<p>If matters concerning sex are treated properly during a child’s -development and education, the necessity for psycho-analysis and any -extension of analytic knowledge of the foundations of one’s own mind -that it may bring is done away with. If it can be ensured that there -is no obvious avoidance of the subject leading to repression in the -child’s mind, and on the other hand no undue prominence given to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> it so -that a morbid curiosity is aroused, a large proportion of the conflicts -that now arise could be avoided. The other necessity is that there -should be provision for sublimation—in art or music, in social service -or in one’s own work, in religion, or, in modified form, in sport or -romance.</p> - -<p>It is perfectly possible, in such case, for mental development to -proceed naturally and comparatively smoothly towards a unified -organization of the type of which we have spoken. Psycho-analysis -would not help a boy or girl developing in such a way, any more than -would a study of all the characters we have inherited from our simian -forefathers help us to realize our specifically human possibilities. On -the other hand, when the intellectual desire to know things for their -own sake is aroused, as it is in most boys and girls between the ages -of about fourteen and twenty, then just as it is good, in order to -get a true picture of the universe, for them to know and be presented -with the evidence for man’s evolution from lower forms, so it is good -for the same reason to give them an account of their psychological -organization, including evidence for the rôle which sex plays in the -genesis of higher mental activities—without, however, any necessity -for psychological experiments in burrowing into their own foundations. -In this case such knowledge would have the additional value of putting -them on their guard against allowing themselves to be prejudiced by -their own incompletely-adjusted conflicts. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span></p> - -<p>We are all of us too prone to think that a phenomenon is somehow -“explained,” or interpreted better, by analysing it into its component -parts or discovering its origin than by studying it in and for itself.</p> - -<p>The new type of mental organization acquired by man permits of wholly -new types of mental process, of a complexity as far exceeding those -that we deduce in brutes as does the physical organism of a dog or an -ant that of a polyp or a protozoan: and it is part of our business to -realize those possibilities to the fullest extent.</p> - -<p>To sum up, then, biological investigation in the first place shows -us how certain abnormalities of sexual psychology may be more easily -interpreted as caused by comparatively simple physical abnormalities -than by the more complex distortions of psychological origin dealt -with by psycho-analysis. In the second place, by giving us a broader -<i>aperçu</i> than can otherwise be gained over the evolution of sex -and the direction visible in biological history, it clears up to a -certain extent some of the difficulties which the discoveries of the -psycho-analytic school have rendered acute.</p> - -<p>If the changes in the relation of the sex instinct to the rest of the -mind, which I have spoken of above as being in operation at present, -should one day progress so far as to be more or less carried through -in a majority, or in a dominant section of the population, the whole -outlook of society towards the sex<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> problem would be changed, and -the laws and institutions and customs connected with it completely -remodelled.</p> - -<p>The most pressing task of those who are thinking over the problem of -sex in human life will often be the relief of suffering and the removal -of abuses: but the broader view should never be forgotten, and every -attempt should be made to think constructively with a view to realizing -the enormous possibilities that such a change would bring about.</p> - -<h3>BIBLIOGRAPHY</h3> - -<blockquote><p>Blair Bell, ’16. “The Sex Complex.” London, 1916.</p> - -<p>Carr-Saunders, ’22. “The Population Problem.” Oxford, 1922.</p> - -<p>Crew, ’23. Proc. Roy. Soc. (B.). London, 1923.</p> - -<p>Cunningham, J. T., ’00. “Sexual Dimorphism in the Animal Kingdom.” -London, 1900.</p> - -<p>Doncaster, L., ’14. “The Determination of Sex.” Cambridge, 1914.</p> - -<p>East and Jones, ’19. “Inbreeding and Outbreeding.” Philadelphia, -1919.</p> - -<p>Ellis, Havelock, ’10. “Studies in the Psychology of Sex.” -Philadelphia, 1910.</p> - -<p>Freud. “The Psychology of the Unconscious.”</p> - -<p>Goldschmidt, R., ’23. “The Mechanism and Physiology of -Sex-Determination.” London, 1923.</p> - -<p>Harrow, B., ’23. “Glands in Health and Disease.” London, 1923.</p> - -<p>Howard, E., ’20. “Territory in Bird Life.” London, 1920. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span></p> - -<p>Huxley, ’14. (Reversed Pairing, Grebe) Proc. Zool. Soc. London, -1914.</p> - -<p>Huxley, ’23. (Courtship and Display) Proc. Linnean Soc. London, -1923.</p> - -<p>Jung, ’20. “Analytical Psychology.” London, 1920.</p> - -<p>Lipschütz, ’19. “Die Pubertätsdrüse.” Bern, 1919.</p> - -<p>Marshall, ’23. “The Physiology of Reproduction.” (2nd Ed.). -Cambridge, 1923.</p> - -<p>Meisenheimer, J., ’21. “Geschlecht und Geschlechter.” Jena, 1921.</p> - -<p>Morgan, ’19. “The Physical Basis of Heredity.” Philadelphia, 1919.</p> - -<p>Rivers, ’20. “Instinct and the Unconscious.” Cambridge, 1920.</p> - -<p>Selous, E., ’20. (Moorhen) <i>Zoologist</i> [4] 6. London, 1902.</p> - -<p>Steinach J., ’20. Verjüngung, Leipzig, 1920.</p> - -<p>Stopes, Marie. “Married Love.”</p> - -<p>Tansley, ’20. “The New Psychology.” London, 1920.</p> - -<p>Vincent, Swale, ’21. “Internal Secretion and the Ductless Gland.” -(2nd Ed.). London, 1921.</p> - -<p>Voronoff, S., ’23. “Greffes Testiculaires.” Paris, 1923.</p></blockquote> - -<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> - -<p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27">[27]</a> Read before the British Society for Sex Psychology, -October 1922.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28">[28]</a> See East and Jones, ’19.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29">[29]</a> See Huxley, ’23.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30">[30]</a> See Howard, ’20; Carr-Saunders, ’22.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31">[31]</a> See Goldschmidt, ’23; Morgan, ’19; Doncaster, ’14.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32">[32]</a> See Steinach, ’20; summary in Lipschütz, ’19; Voronoff, -’23.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33">[33]</a> See Carr-Saunders, ’22, ch. v, and M. Stopes.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34">[34]</a> See Lipschütz, ’19; Goldschmidt, ’23.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35">[35]</a> See Selous, ’02; Huxley, 14.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36">[36]</a> See Blair Bell, ’16.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37">[37]</a> See Vincent, ’21; Harrow, ’23.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38">[38]</a> Crew, ’23.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39">[39]</a> See Rivers, ’20, chs. iv, xviii.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40">>[40]</a> Rivers, ’20, p. 158.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>V</span> <span class="smaller">PHILOSOPHIC ANTS:</span></h2> - -<p class="bold">A BIOLOGIC FANTASY </p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span></p> - -<p class="center">PHILOSOPHIC——ANTS?</p> - -<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div>Amœba has her picture in the book,</div> -<div class="i1">Proud Protozoon!—Yet beware of pride.</div> -<div class="i1">All she can do is fatten and divide;</div> -<div>She cannot even read, or sew, or cook....</div> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<div>The Worm can crawl—but has no eyes to look:</div> -<div class="i1">The Jelly-fish can swim—but lacks a bride:</div> -<div class="i1">The Fly’s a very Ass personified:</div> -<div>And speech is absent even from the Rook.</div> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<div>The Ant herself cannot philosophize—</div> -<div class="i1">While Man does that, and sees, and keeps a wife,</div> -<div>And flies, and talks, and is extremely wise....</div> -<div class="i1">Will our Philosophy to later Life</div> -<div>Seem but a crudeness of the planet’s youth,</div> -<div>Our Wisdom but a parasite of Truth?</div> -</div></div></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span></p> - -<p class="bold2">PHILOSOPHIC ANTS:</p> - -<p class="bold2">A BIOLOGIC FANTASY<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" >[41]</a></p> - -<p class="center">“Incomprehensibility; that’s what I say.”—<span class="smcap">Lewis Carroll</span> -(<i>amended</i>).</p> - -<p>According to a recent study by Mr. Shapley (Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., -Philadelphia, vol. vi, p. 204), the normal rate of progression of -ants—or at least of the species of ant which he studied—is a function -of temperature. For each rise of ten degrees centigrade, the ants go -about double as fast. So complete is the dependence that the ants may -be employed as a thermometer, measurement of their rate of locomotion -giving the temperature to within one degree centigrade.</p> - -<p class="center">* * * * * * *</p> - -<p>The simple consequence—easy of apprehension by us, but infinite -puzzlement to ants—is that on a warm day an ant will get through a -task four or five times as heavy as she will on a cold one. She does -more, thinks more, lives more: more Bergsonian duration is hers.</p> - -<p>There was a time, we learn in the myrmecine <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span>annals, when ants were -simple unsophisticated folk, barely emerged from entomological -barbarism. Some stayed at home to look after the young brood and tend -the houses, others went afield to forage. It was not long before they -discovered that the days differed in length. At one season of the year -they found the days insufferably long; they must rest five or six times -if they were, by continuing work while light lasted, to satisfy their -fabulous instinct for toil. At the opposite season, they needed no -rest at all, for they only carried through a fifth of the work. This -irregularity vexed them: and what is more, time varied from day to day, -and this hindered them in the accurate execution of any plans.</p> - -<p>But as the foragers talked with the household servants, and with those -of their own number who through illness or accident were forced to stay -indoors, they discovered that the home-stayers noticed a much slighter -difference in time between the seasons.</p> - -<p>It is easy for us to see this as due to the simple fact that the -temperature of the nest varies less, summer and winter, than does that -of the outer air: but it was a hard nut for them, and there was much -head-scratching. It was of course made extremely difficult by the fact -that they were not sensitive to gradual changes in temperature as such, -the change being as it were taken up in the altered rate of living. -But as their processes of thought kept pace in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> alteration with their -movements, they found it simplest and most natural to believe in the -fixity and uniformity of their own life and its processes, and to refer -all changes to the already obvious mutability of external nature.</p> - -<p>The Wise Ants were summoned: they were ordered by the Queen to -investigate the matter; and so, after consultation, decided to apply -the test of experiment. Several of their numbers, at stated intervals -throughout the year, stayed in and went out on alternate days, -performing identical tasks on the two occasions. The task was the -repeated recitation of the most efficacious of the myrmecine sacred -formulæ.</p> - -<p>The rough-and-ready calculations of the workers were speedily -corroborated. “Great is God, and we are the people of God” could be -recited out-of-doors some twenty thousand times a day in summer, less -than four thousand times in winter; while the corresponding indoor -figures were about fifteen thousand and six thousand.</p> - -<p>There was the fact; now for the explanation. After many conclaves, -a most ingenious hypothesis was put forward, which found universal -credence. Let me give it in an elegant and logical form.</p> - -<blockquote><p>(1) It was well-known—indeed self-evident—that the Ant race was -the offspring and special care of the Power who made and ruled the -universe.</p> - -<p>(1.1) Therefore a great deal of the virtue and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> essence of that -Power inhered in the race of Ants. Ants, indeed, were made in the -image of God.</p> - -<p>(1.2) It was, alas, common knowledge that this Power, although -Omnipotent and Omniscient, was confronted by another power, the -power of disorder, of irregularity, who prevented tasks, put -temptations in the way of workers, and was in fact the genius of -Evil.</p> - -<p>(2) Further, it was a received tradition among them that there had -been a fall from the grace of a Golden Age, when there were no -neuters, but all enjoyed married bliss; and the ant-cows gave milk -and honey from their teats.</p> - -<p>(2.1) And that this was forfeited by a crime (unmentionable, I -regret to say, in modern society) on the part of a certain Queen -of Ants in the distant past. The Golden Age was gone; the poor -neuters—obligate spinsters—were brought into being; work became -the order of the day. Ant-lions with flaming jaws were set round -that kingdom of Golden Age, from which all ants were thenceforth -expelled.</p> - -<p>(2.2.1) This being so, it was natural to conclude that the fall -from grace involved a certain loss of divine qualities.</p> - -<p>(2.2.2) The general conclusion to be drawn was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> that in the race -of ants there still resided a certain quantity of these virtues -that give regularity to things and events; although not sufficient -wholly to counter-balance the machinations of the power of evil -and disorder.</p> - -<p>(2.2.3) That where a number of ants had their home and were -congregated together, there the virtue resided in larger bulk and -with greater effect, but that abroad, where ants were scattered -and away from hearth, home, and altar, the demon of irregularity -exerted greater sway.</p></blockquote> - -<p>This doctrine held the field for centuries.</p> - -<p class="center">* * * * * * *</p> - -<p>But at last a philosopher arose. He was not satisfied with the current -explanation, although this had been held for so long that it had -acquired the odour and force of a religious dogma. He decided to put -the matter to the test. He took a pupa (<i>anglice</i> “ant’s egg”) and on a -windless day suspended it from a twig outside the nest. There he had it -swung back and forth, counting its swings. He then (having previously -obtained permission from the Royal Sacerdotal College) suspended the -pupa by the same length of thread from the roof of the largest chamber -of the nest—a dome devoted to spiritual exercise—and repeated the -swinging and the counting. The living pendulum-bob achieved the same -daily number of oscillations inside the nest as outside, although<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> it -was full summer, and the foragers found the day quite twice as long -as did the home-stayers. The trial was repeated with another pupa and -other lengths of thread; the result was always the same.</p> - -<p>It was then that he laid the foundations of ant science by his bold -pronouncement that neither the combat of spiritual powers nor the -expansion or contraction of the store of divine grace had anything to -do with the strange alteration of diurnal length; but that the cause of -it lay in the Ants themselves, who varied with the varying of something -for which he invented the word <i>Temperature</i>, not in a contraction or -expansion of Time.</p> - -<p>This he announced in public, thinking that a tested truth must be -well-received, and would of necessity some day prove useful to society. -But the consequence was a storm of protest, horror, and execration.</p> - -<p>Did this impious creature think to overthrow the holy traditions with -impunity? Did he not realize that to impugn one sentence, one word, -one letter of the Sacred Books was to subvert the whole? Did he think -that a coarse, simple, verifiable experiment was to weigh against the -eternal verity of subtle and mysterious Revelation? No! and again a -thousand times No!!</p> - -<p>He was brought before the Wise Ants, and cross-questioned by them. It -was finally decided that he was to abjure his heretical opinion and to -recant in public, reciting aloud to the four winds of heaven: “the Ant -is the norm of all”— </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span></p> - -<p class="center">Μὑρμηξ παντὁς νὁμος.</p> - -<p>He said it. But Truth stirred within him, and under his breath he -muttered “Eppur si muove....” This was overheard, and he was condemned -(loneliness being much hated and dreaded by ants) to a solitary -banishment.</p> - -<p>Later philosophers, however, by using this same pendulum method, were -enabled to find that the movements of sap in plants differed in rate -according to the length of day, and later discovered that the expansion -of water in hollow stems also followed these changes. By devising -machines for registering these movements, they were enabled to prophesy -with considerable success the amount of work to be got through on a -given day, and so to render great aid to the smooth working of the body -politic. Thus, gradually, the old ideas fell into desuetude among the -educated classes—which, however, did not prevent the common people -from remaining less than half-convinced and from regarding the men of -science with suspicion and disapproval.</p> - -<p class="center">* * * * * * *</p> - -<p>We happen to be warm-blooded—to have had the particular problem -faced by our philosophic ants solved for us during the passage of -evolutionary time, not by any taking of thought on our part or on -the part of our ancestors, but by the casual processes of variation -and natural selection. But a succession of similar problems presses -upon us. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span>Relativity is in the air; it is so much in the air that it -becomes almost stifling at times; but even so, its sphere so far has -been the inorganic sciences, and biological relativity, though equally -important, has been little mentioned.</p> - -<p>We have all heard the definition of life as “one damn thing after -another”; it would perhaps be more accurate to substitute some term -such as <i>relatedness</i> for <i>thing</i>.</p> - -<p>When I was a small boy, my mother wrote down in a little book a number -of my infant doings and childish sayings, the perusal of which I find -an admirable corrective to any excessive moral or intellectual conceit. -What, for instance, is to be thought of a scientist of whom the -following incident is recorded, even if the record refers to the age of -four years?</p> - -<p>I (for convenience one must assign the same identity to oneself at -different ages, although again it is but a relative sameness that -persists)—I had made some particularly outrageous statement which was -easily proved false: to which proof, apparently without compunction, I -answered, “Oh, well, I always ex<i>agg</i>-erate when it’s a fine day....”</p> - -<p>The converse of this I came across recently in a solemn treatise of -psychology: a small girl of five or six, in the course of an “essay” in -school, affirmed that the sun was shining and the day was fine; while -as a matter of fact it had been continuously overcast and gloomy: on -being pressed for a reason, she <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span>explained that she felt so happy that -particular morning that she had been sure it was a fine day.</p> - -<p>If the weather can affect one’s statements of fact, and one’s emotions -can affect the apparent course of meteorological events, where is -the line to be drawn? What is real? The only things of which we have -immediate cognizance are, of course, happenings in our minds: and the -precise nature and quality of each of these happenings depends on two -things—on the constitution and state of our mind and its train on the -one hand; on the other hand upon events or relations between events -outside that system. That sounds very grand; but all it means after all -is that you need a cause to produce an effect, a machine to register as -well as a something to be registered.</p> - -<p>As further consequence, since this particular machine (if I may be -permitted to use the odious word in a purely metaphorical sense), -this mind of ours, is never the same for two succeeding instants, but -continually varies both in the quantity of its activity and the quality -of its state, it follows that variations in mental happenings depend -very largely on variations in the machine that registers, not by any -means solely upon variations in what is to be registered.</p> - -<p>Few (at least among Englishmen) would dispute the thesis that food, -properly cooked and served, and of course adapted to the hour, is -attractive four<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> times in the day. But to a large proportion among -us, even sausages and marmalade at nine, or roast beef and potatoes -on a Sabbath noon, would prove not only not attractive but positively -repellent if offered us on a small steamer on a rough day. I will not -labour the point.</p> - -<p>We all know how the size of sums of money appears to vary in a -remarkable way according as they are being paid in or paid out. We -all know to our cost the extraordinary superiority of the epochs when -our more elderly relatives were youthful. The fact remains that we -are always prone to regard the registering machine as a constant, -and to believe that all the variation comes from outside. It is easy -to discount the inner variation in ourselves when we are seasick, or -in others when they are old and reminiscent, but not only is this -discounting sometimes far more difficult, it is sometimes not even -attempted.</p> - -<p>What, for instance, are we to say to those who profess to find a -harmony in the universe, those to whom poverty and discomfort and -hard work appear the merest accidents, to whom even disease, pain, -loss, death, and disaster are “somehow good”? You and I would probably -retort that we have a rooted dislike to discomfort, that we should most -strongly deny that the loss of a friend or even of a leg was anything -but bad, that a toothache was not damnably unpleasant. But I think that -if they were philosophically inclined (which they probably would not -be), they might justifiably retort that the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span>difference between their -universe and ours was due to a difference in their mental machinery, -which they had succeeded in adjusting so that it registered in a -different and a better way.</p> - -<p>It is at least clear that something of the sort can happen in the -intellectual sphere. To the uneducated, the totality of things, if ever -reflected upon, is a compound of fog and chaos: advance is painfully -slow, and interlarded with unpleasant falls into pits and holes of -illogicality and inconsequence; to those who have taken the trouble to -push on, however, an orderly system at last reveals itself.</p> - -<p>The problem of the origin and relationship of species gave such mental -distress to those zoologists of the first half of the nineteenth -century who were conscientious enough to struggle with it, that -many of them ended by a mental suppression of the problem and a -refusal to discuss it further. The publication of Darwin’s <i>Origin -of Species</i> was to them what psycho-analysis is (or may be) to a -patient with a repressed complex. Or again, no one can read accounts -of the physicists’ recent work on the structure of the atom without -experiencing an extraordinary feeling of satisfaction. Instead of -wallowing in unrelated facts, we fly on wings of principle; not only -can we better cut our way through the jungle of things, but we are -allowed a privilege that has universally been considered one of the -attributes of Gods—the calm and untroubled understanding of things and -processes. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span></p> - -<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div>“The Gods are happy.</div> -<div>They turn on all sides</div> -<div>Their shining eyes,</div> -<div>And see below them</div> -<div>The earth and men.”</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>This being so, what is to prevent us from believing that, once certain -adjustments are made in the mental sausage-machine, we shall discover -that what we once found impossibly tough meat will pass smoothly -through and become done up into the most satisfactory of sausages? -In other words, that the values are there if we choose to make -them—an Euckenish doctrine which, for all that it arouses instinctive -suspicion, may none the less be true.</p> - -<p>But even when we have made all possible discounts of this kind, evolved -the smoothest-running machinery, converted the raw and meaty material -of being into every conceivable kind of tidy sausage, the fact remains -that there are feats beyond the power of our machine—beyond its power -because of the very quality of its being.</p> - -<p>We live at a certain rhythm in time, at a certain level of size and -space; beyond certain limits, events in the outer world are not -directly appreciable by the ordinary channels of sense, although a -symbolic picture of them may be presented to us by the intellect.</p> - -<p>When we are listening to the organ, sometimes there come notes which -are on the border-line between sound and feeling: their separate -vibrations<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> are distinguishable and pulse through us, and the more the -vibrations are separable, the more they are felt as mechanical shocks, -the less as sound. However, we know perfectly well that all sounds as -a matter of fact depend on vibratory disturbance, and that it is only -some peculiarity of the registering machinery, in ear or brain, which -enables us to hear a note as continuous.</p> - -<p>Still more remarkable are the facts of vision. As I write I see -the tulips in my garden, red against the green grass: the red is a -continuous sensation; but the physicists appear to be justified in -telling us that the eye is being bombarded every second with a series -of waves, not the few hundred or thousand that give us sound, but the -half-billion or so which conspire to illuminate our vision.</p> - -<p>With sound, we alter the frequency of the waves and we get a difference -of tone which seems to be merely a difference of more or less: but -alter the frequency of light-waves, and the whole quality of the -sensation changes, as when I look from the tulips to the sky. The -change of registering mechanism is here more profound than the change -in outer event.</p> - -<p>Or again, to choose an example that depends more on size than rhythm, -how very difficult it is to remember that the pressure of air on our -bodies is not the uniform gentle embrace of some homogeneous substance, -but the bombardment of an infinity of particles. The particles are not -even all alike: some are of oxygen, others of nitrogen, of carbonic -acid<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> gas, of water vapour. They are not all travelling at uniform -speeds; collisions are all the time occurring, and the molecules are -continuously changing their rate of travel as they clash and bump.</p> - -<p>We have only to look down a microscope to convince ourselves of the -alteration in our experience that it would mean if we were to become -sufficiently diminished. The tiniest solid particles in fluids can -be seen to be in a continuous state of agitation—inexplicable until -it was pointed out that this mysterious “Brownian” movement was the -inevitable result of impacts by the faster-moving molecules of the -fluid. Many living things that we can still see are small enough to -live permanently in such agitation; the longest diameter of many -bacteria is but half a micron (a two-thousandth of a millimetre), and -there are many ultra-microscopic organisms which, owing to their closer -approximation to molecular dimensions, must pass their lives in erratic -excursions many times more violent than any visible Brownian motion.</p> - -<p>If we could shrink, like Alice, at the persuasion of some magic -mushroom, the rain of particles on our skin, now as unfelt as midges -by a rhinoceros, would at last begin to be perceptible. We should -find ourselves surrounded by an infinity of motes; titillated by -a dance of sand-grains; bruised by a rain of marbles; pounded by -flights of fives-balls. What is more, the smaller we became, the -more individuality and apparent free-will should we detect in the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span>surrounding particles. As we got still smaller, we should, now and -again, find the nearly uniform bombardment replaced by a concerted -attack on one side or the other, and we should be hurled for perhaps -double our own length in one direction. If we could conceivably enter -into a single inorganic molecule, we should find ourselves one of a -moving host of similar objects: and we should further perceive that -these objects were themselves complex, some like double stars, others -star-clusters, others single suns, and all again built of lesser units -held in a definite plan, in an architecture reminding us (if we still -had memory) of a solar system <i>in petto</i>. If we were lucky enough -to be in a complicated fluid like seawater, we should be intrigued -by the relations of the different kinds of particles. They would be -continually coming up to other particles of different kinds, and would -then sometimes enter into intimate union with them. If we could manage -to follow their history, we should find that after a time they would -separate, and seek new partners, of the same or of different species. -Some kinds of the units, or people as we should be inclined to call -them, would spend most of their existence in the married state, others -would apparently prefer to remain single, or, if they married, would -within no long time obtain divorce.</p> - -<p>We should be forcibly reminded of life in some cosmopolitan city like -London or New York. If there existed a registrar to note down the -events of these little beings’ existence, and we were privileged<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> to -inspect the register, we should find that each had its own history, -different from that of every other in its course and its matrimonial -adventures.</p> - -<p>If we were near the surface we should find that the outer beings always -arranged themselves in a special and coherent layer, apparently to -protect themselves against the machinations of the different beings -inhabiting the region beyond; for every now and again one would seem -to be pulled from the water and be lost among the more scattered -inhabitants of the air.</p> - -<p>If we could now revert to our old size, we might remember, as we -listened to the scientist enunciating the simple formulæ of the -gas-laws, or giving numerical expression to vapour-pressures and -solubilities, that this simplicity and order which he enabled us to -find in inorganic nature was only simplicity when viewed on a large -enough scale, and that it was needful to deal in millions and billions -before chance aberrations faded into insignificance, needful to -experience molecules from the standpoint of a unit almost infinitely -bigger before individual behaviour could be neglected and merged in the -orderly average. And we might be tempted to wonder how the personal -idiosyncrasies of our human units might appear to a being as much -larger than we as we are larger than a molecule—whether kings and -beggars would not fare alike, and all the separate, striving, feeling, -conflicting personalities, with their individual histories, their -ancestors, successes, marriages, friendships, pains, and pleasures, be -merged in some <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span>homogeneous and simple effect, altering in response to -circumstances, with changes capable of expression in some formula as -simple as Boyle’s or Avogadro’s Law.</p> - -<p>Almost more startling might be the effect of altering the rhythm at -which we live, or rather at which we experience events.</p> - -<p>If only I were Mr. H. G. Wells, I could make a mint of money by a story -based on this idea of rhythm of living.<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" >[42]</a> Let us see.... First there -would be Mercaptan the distinguished inventor, who would lead me (lay, -uninstructed, Watsonish me, after the fashion of narrators) into his -laboratory. There on the table would be the machine—all but complete: -handles, coils of wire, quartz terminals, gauges of rock-crystal in -which oscillated coloured fluids, platinum cogwheels ... dot ... dot -... dot ... dot.... He hardly dared to make the final connections, all -clear and calculable though they were. He had put so much of himself -into it: so many hopes ... fears ... dots....</p> - -<p>Then there would be the farewell dinner-party—first the inventor’s -voice on the wireless telephone,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> summoning Wagrom the explorer, Glosh -of the <i>Evening Post</i>, Stewartson Ampill the novelist, and the rest -of our old friends: then the warm friendly light of the candles, the -excellent port, the absence of women, the reminiscences, the asterisks, -the....</p> - -<p>Mercaptan refuses to allow the rest to come into the laboratory, in -case something should go wrong. He straps the machine on his shoulders, -makes a final connection; his life processes begin to work faster, -faster, ever faster. The first effect of course was a change of colour. -The blue oblong of the window became green—yellow—orange—red. -Meanwhile each wave-length of the ultra-violet became blue, and itself -ran down the gamut of colour. Then came the turn of the X-rays—by -their dim light he groped about, till they too became relatively too -slow for his retina. That ought to make him blind, of course—but no! -Mr. Wells had thought that all out; and he came into a state of nearly -maximum speed where he perceived a brilliant, phosphorescent light -given out by all objects, generated by disturbances of a wave-length -unimaginably, undiscoverably small. Meanwhile he had passed through an -amazing experience—he had heard the veritable music of the spheres! -That had happened when in his acceleration he had, so to speak, caught -up with the light-waves, until they were tuned to his ear’s organ of -Corti: and all that had been visible in his ordinary life was now to be -appreciated by hearing. Unfortunately, as his ears possessed no lens, -this <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span>universal music was to him of course merely a hideous babel of -sound.</p> - -<p>At last, as the workings of his body approached the rapidity of light’s -own oscillations, he entered on a new phase—surrounded on every side -by an ocean of waves which lapped softly against his body—waves, -waves, and still more waves....</p> - -<p>He was in that region not unlike that from which life has escaped when -it ceased to be infinitely little, a region in which none of the events -that make up our ordinary life, none of the bodies that are our normal -environment, have existence any more—all reduced to a chaos of billows -ceaselessly and meaninglessly buffeting his being.</p> - -<p>“Mi ritrovai in una selva oscura.”</p> - -<p>Life is a wood, dark and trackless enough to be sure; but Mercaptan -could not even see that it was a wood—for the trees.</p> - -<p>Yet it was soothing: the very meaninglessness of the wave-rocking -released one of responsibility, and it was delicious to float upon this -strange etheric sea.</p> - -<p>Then his scientific mind reasserted itself. He realized that he had -magnified his rate of life and was consuming his precious days at an -appalling speed. The lever was thrown into reverse, and he passed -gradually back to what he had been accustomed to think of as reality.</p> - -<p>Back to it; and then beyond it, slowing his vital rhythm. This time -he was able by an ingenious arrangement to eliminate much of the -disturbing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> effect of his rhythm-change on his vision. It was an idea -of which he was very proud: every alternate light-wave was cut out when -he doubled the capacity of each process of life, and so on in automatic -correspondence. As a result he was enabled to get a picture of the -outer world very similar to that obtained in the ordinary accelerations -of slow processes that are made possible by running slow-taken cinema -records at high speed. He saw the snowdrops lift their matutinal heads -and drop them again at evening—an instant later; the spring was an -alarming burst of living energy, the trees’ budding and growth of -leaves became a portent, like the bristling of hairs on the backs of -vegetable cats. As his rate changed and he comprehended more and more -in each pulse, the flowers faded and fell before he could think of -plucking them, autumnal apples rotted in his grasp, day was a flash -and night a wink of the eye, the two blending at last in a continuous -half-light.</p> - -<p>After a time ordinary objects ceased to be distinguishable; then the -seasons shared the fate of day and night. The lever was now nearly hard -over, and the machine was reaching its limits. He was covering nearly a -thousand of men’s years with each of his own seconds.</p> - -<p>The cinema effect was almost useless to him now; and he discarded this -apparatus. Now followed what he had so eagerly awaited, something -deducible in general but unpredictable in all particulars. As the -repeated separate impacts of the ether waves had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> condensed, at his old -ordinary rate, to form the continuous sensation of light, so now the -events of nature coalesced to give new objects, new kinds of sensation. -Especially was this so with life: the repeated generations seemed to -act like separate repeated waves of light, blending to give a picture -of the species changing and evolving before his eyes.</p> - -<p>Other experiences he could explain less well. He was conscious of -strange sensations that he thought were probably associated with -changes in energy-distribution, in entropy; others which he seemed to -perceive directly, by some form of telepathy, concerning the type of -mental process occurring around him. It was all strange: but of one -thing he was sure—that if only he could find a way of nourishing and -maintaining himself in this new state, he would be able, as a child -does in the first few years of life, to correlate his puzzling new -sensations, and that when he had done this he would obtain a different -and more direct view of reality than any he had ever obtained or -thought of obtaining before.</p> - -<p>As the individual light-waves were summed to give light, as the -microcosm of gas-molecules cancelled out to give a uniformity of -pressure, so now the repetition of the years coalesced into what could -be described as visible time, a sensation of cosmic rate; the repeated -pullulations of living things fused into something perceived as organic -achievement: and the infinite variety of organisms, their conflicts -and interactions, resolved itself, through the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span>mediation of his -sense-organs and brain at their new rhythm, into a direct perception of -life as a whole, an entity with a pressure on its environment, a single -slowly-evolving form, a motion and direction.</p> - -<p>He put the lever to its limit: the rhythm of the cosmos altered again -in relation to his own. He had an extraordinary sense of being on the -verge of a revelation. The universe—that was the same; but what he -experienced of it was totally different. He had immediate experience -of the waxing and waning of suns, of the condensation of nebulæ, the -slowing down and speeding up of evolutionary processes.</p> - -<p>The curious, apparently telepathic sense which he had had of the -mental side of existence was intensified. Through it, the world began -to be perceived as a single Being, with all its parts in interaction. -The shadowy lineaments of this being were half seen by his mental -vision—vast, colossal, slowly changing; but they appeared only to -disappear again, like a picture in the fire.</p> - -<p>Strive as he might, he could not see its real likeness. Now it appeared -benign; at its next dim reappearance there would be a feeling of -capricious irresponsibility about it: at another instant it was cold, -remote; once or twice terrible, impending over and filling everything -with a black demoniacal power which brought only horror with it.</p> - -<p>If he could but accelerate the machine! He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> wanted to <i>know</i>—to know -whether this phantom were a reality, to know above all if it were a -thing of evil or of good: and he could not know unless he could advance -that last final step necessary to fuse the rhythm of separate events -into the sensation of the single whole.</p> - -<p>He sat straining all his faculties: the machine whirred and rocked: but -in vain. And at last, feeling desperately hungry, for he had forgotten -to take food with him, he gradually brought back the lever to its -neutral-point.</p> - -<p class="center">* * * * * * *</p> - -<p>Of course, Mr. Wells would have done it much better than this.</p> - -<p class="center">* * * * * * *</p> - -<p>And then there would have to be an ending. I think the newspaper man -would take his opportunity to slink off into the laboratory and get on -the machine with the idea of making a scoop for his paper; ... and then -he would put the lever in too violently, and be thrown backwards. His -head hit the corner of a bench, and he remained stunned; but by evil -chance, the handles of the machine still made connection with his body -after the fall. The machine was making him adjust his rhythm to that of -light; so that he was living at an appalling rate. He had gone into the -laboratory late at night. Next morning they found him—dead:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> and dead -of senile decay—grey-haired, shrivelled, atrophic.</p> - -<p>Then of course the machine is smashed up; and Mr. Wells begins to write -another book.</p> - -<p class="center">* * * * * * *</p> - -<p>I have spent so much time in frivolous discussion of rhythm and size -and commonplaces that I have not pointed out another fundamental fact -of biological relativity—to wit, that we are but parochial creatures -endowed only with sense-organs giving information about the agencies -normally found in our own little environment. Mind without the objects -of mind is the very Chimaera bombinating <i>in vacuo</i>.</p> - -<p>Out of all the ether waves we are sensitive to an octave as light, and -some few others as heat. X-rays and ultra-violet destroy us, but we -know nothing about them until they begin to give us pain; while the low -swell of Hertzian waves passes by and through us harmless and unheeded. -Electrical sense again we have none.</p> - -<p>Imagine what it would be for inhabitants of another planet where -changes in Hertzian waves were the central, pivotal changes in -environment, where accordingly life had become sensitive to “wireless” -and to nought else save perhaps touch—imagine such beings broadcast -upon the face of the Earth. With a little practice and ingenuity they -would no doubt be able to decipher the messages floating through -our atmosphere, would feel the rhythms of the Black Hamitic Band -transmitting Jazz to a million homes,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> and be able to follow, night by -night, the soporific but benevolent fairy-stories of Uncle Archibald. -I wonder what they would make of it all. They would at intervals, -of course, be bumping into things and people. But would touch and -radio-sense alone make our world intelligible? I wonder....</p> - -<p>When we begin trying to quit our anthropocentry and discover what the -world might be like if only we had other organs of body and mind for -its assaying, we must flounder and bump in a not dissimilar fashion.</p> - -<p>Even the few senses that we do possess are determined by our -environment. Sweet things are pleasant to us: sugar is sweet: so is -“sugar of lead”—lead acetate; sugar is nutritious, lead acetate a -poison. The biologist will conclude, and with perfect reason, that if -sugar was as rare as lead acetate in nature, lead acetate as common as -sugar, we should then abominate and reject sweet things as emphatically -as we now do filth or acids or over-hot liquids.</p> - -<p>But I must pause, and find a moral for my tale; for all will agree that -a moral has been so long out of fashion that it is now fast becoming -fashionable again.</p> - -<p>Every schoolboy, as Macaulay would say, knows William of Occam’s -Razor—that philosophical tool of admirable properties:—“Entia non -multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.”</p> - -<p>We want another razor—a Relativist Razor; and with that we will carry -out barbering operations<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> worthy of another Shaving of Shagpat: we will -shave the Absolute.</p> - -<p>The hoary Absolute, enormous and venerable, grey-bearded and -grey-locked—he sits enthroned, wielding tremendous power, filling -young minds with fear and awe.</p> - -<p>Up, barbers, and at him! Heat the water of your enthusiasm: lather -those disguising appurtenances. See the tufts collapse into the white -foam—feel the hairy jungles melt away before your steel! And at the -end, when the last hair falls, you will wipe away the lather, and look -upon that face and see—ah, what indeed?</p> - -<p>I will not be so banal as to attempt to describe that sight in -detail. You will have seen it already in your mind’s eye: “or else” -(to quote Mr. Belloc)—“or else you will not; I cannot be positive -which.” If not, you never will; if yes, what need to waste more of the -compositor’s time? But of him who forges that razor, who arms those -barbers, who gives them courage for their colossal task, of him shall a -new Lucretius sing.</p> - -<h3>BIBLIOGRAPHY</h3> - -<blockquote><p>Belloc, H. “The Bad Child’s Book of Beasts.”</p> - -<p>Bergson, H. “Time and Free-Will.”</p> - -<p>Carroll, L. “Alice in Wonderland.”</p> - -<p>—— —— “Alice Through the Looking Glass.”</p> - -<p>Clerk Maxwell. “Collected Papers.” </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span></p> - -<p>Einstein. See Kant.</p> - -<p>Hegel. See Einstein.</p> - -<p>Kant. See Hegel.</p> - -<p>Lear, E. “Nonsense Songs and Stories.”</p> - -<p>Lucretius. “De Rerum Natura.”</p> - -<p>Macaulay, Lord. “Essays.”</p> - -<p>Mee, A. “Children’s Encyclopædia.”</p> - -<p>Meredith, G. “The Shaving of Shagpat.”</p> - -<p>Occam, W. de. “Opera Omnia.”</p> - -<p>Shapley. Proc. Nat. Ac. Sci., 6, 204.</p> - -<p>Swift, J. “Gulliver’s Travels.”</p> - -<p>Wells, H. G. “The New Accelerator.”</p> - -<p>Wheeler, W. M. “Ants” (Columbia University Series).</p></blockquote> - -<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> - -<p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41">[41]</a> Read before the Heretics Club, Cambridge, May 1922.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42">[42]</a> The reading of this paper brought a string of informants -eager to let me know that Mr. Wells had already written a story on this -theme. I was grateful to them for having caused me to read the <i>New -Accelerator</i>, which by some strange chance I had managed to miss: but -Mr. Wells’s treatment is so wholly different from that which I have -sketched that I feel no scruples in letting it stand: and, if amends -are needed, at least I make him a present of the germ of a new tale, -and so feel that honour should be satisfied.</p> -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>VI</span> <span class="smaller">RATIONALISM AND THE IDEA OF GOD</span></h2> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span></p> - -<p class="center">GODS</p> - -<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div>Surprised by doubt, and longing but to know,</div> -<div class="i1">I asked of men and books what God might be:—</div> -<div class="i1">“An immanent spirit, clothed with the world we see”—</div> -<div>“A King of kings, ruler of all below”—</div> -<div>“Pure Love”—“A golden calf set up for show”—</div> -<div class="i1">“A jealous chief and tribal sectary”—</div> -<div class="i1">“Figment of fear and Man’s servility”—</div> -<div>“The final Judge that dooms to joy or woe” ...</div> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<div>I turned away; and found my God alone.</div> -<div class="i1">God is the world—yet captive in our thought:</div> -<div>Our thought—when it the head of the world is grown:</div> -<div class="i1">Love—with what love we to ourselves have taught.</div> -<div>The Soul must incarnate Divinity,</div> -<div>And God in each anew must builded be.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span></p> - -<p class="bold2">RATIONALISM AND THE IDEA OF GOD</p> - -<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div>“Du gleichst dem Geist, den du begreifst.”</div> -<div class="i12">—<span class="smcap">Goethe.</span></div> -</div></div></div> - -<blockquote><p>“Nowadays, matters of national defence, of politics, of religion, -are still too important for Knowledge, and remain subjects for -certitude; that is to say, in them we still prefer the comfort of -instinctive belief because we have not learnt adequately to value -the capacity to foretell.”—<span class="smcap">W. Trotter.</span></p></blockquote> - -<p>No one who has read Flaubert’s <i>Tentation de St. Antoine</i> will be -likely to forget that amazing procession of Gods, hundreds upon -hundreds, in every diversity of form, defiling past the visionary -Saint to topple over into the abyss of nothingness and be for ever -destroyed—the doomed and outworn divinities of man’s childhood and -adolescence, put away as he came to maturity. “Man created God in his -own image,” wrote the irrepressible pen of Voltaire; and if it is not -always true that Gods have been in his own image, but also in the image -of animals and monsters, of embodied fears and hopes, it is indubitable -that man has created God after God, only to throw them on the scrapheap -as he outgrows them, like a child rejecting his old toys for new.</p> - -<p>Indubitable—in a sense; indubitable that he has given each of them -their peculiar and characteristic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> form, endowed this and that God -with different qualities. But there is another part which he has not -created, which he can only perceive, mould, clothe. The raw material of -Divinity and its elemental attributes are given—man can but take it or -leave it; and, what is more, it is difficult for him to leave it. It is -given as the raw material and elemental attributes of life are given, -and the evolutionary process can but take them. Man moulds and forms; -but evolution has no more created living matter than he Divinity.</p> - -<p class="center">* * * * * * *</p> - -<p>I propose, then, to lay down as my main point that the idea of God is -an inevitable product of biological evolution, arising when the human -type of mind first came into being, and taking shape and form as a -definite God or Gods. That the Gods who thus arise, although of course -they play a rôle in the affairs of the human species only, have a -definite biological function. That the term God can still be properly -and profitably employed to denote a certain complex of phenomena, with -a certain function in human evolution.</p> - -<p>What, then, do we mean by saying that the idea of God arises inevitably -with the appearance of man upon the evolutionary scene? How can the -appearance of man account for such a curious phenomenon?</p> - -<p>With man, for the first time in the history of life upon the earth, an -organism appeared capable of generalizing, of framing concepts, and of -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span>communicating them to his fellows. Through sense-organs and brain, an -organism reflects in its mind some of the events of the world outside, -creates some sort of a microcosm over against the macroscosm. But -the animal with no more than associative memory can at best create a -haphazard microcosm, a mere cinema record, and incomplete at that, of -the most elementary organization; while all one can say of its power -of profiting by experience is that a certain primitive plot is thus -provided for the series of adventures which make up the scenario.</p> - -<p>With an organism like man, however, in which to the faculty of -associative memory there has been superadded the power of framing -concepts and of accumulating experience by tradition, the picture is -altogether changed. The microcosm becomes more highly organized; from -rough-and-tumble cinema it develops into an elaborate drama, whose plot -is knotted up in the same general way as that of the great macrocosmic -drama unrolling itself outside. Microcosm images macrocosm more nearly, -both in its form and in its scope. As result of this, life is for the -first time enabled in man’s person to frame some general ideas of the -outer world. Not only is it enabled, it cannot help but do so. The -outer world is there; it impinges through man’s sense-organs on his -mind, and his mind is so constructed that, if it thinks at all, it must -think in general terms.</p> - -<p>For the first time, life becomes aware of something more than a set -of events; it becomes aware of a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> system of powers operating in -events. These powers (to use a general, and what is intended to be a -non-committal, term) are in constant action upon man’s life. There is -a power in the sun, a power in the storm, in the growth of crops, in -wild beasts, in strange tribes, in the unrealized recesses of man’s own -heart; and in the course of his life man is brought into contact with -these powers, which may act with him or against him. Man frames his own -idea of these powers; and once that idea is framed, it exerts an effect -upon the rest of his ideas, upon his emotions, upon his conduct. The -more strongly the idea is held, the greater the effect.</p> - -<p>But the idea may obviously be held and organized in many different -ways. It is when the idea is organized in one particular way that -we call it religious. We call it religious when on the one hand it -involves some recognition of powers operating so as to underlie the -general operations of the world; and, on the other hand, when it -involves the emotions. It must involve the idea of the general powers -operating in the outer world; so that an emotional reaction entirely -limited to a single human being, or to beauty, or to a single event, -is not religious. And it must involve the emotional nature of man, so -that a purely intellectual investigation of the powers in operation, or -a purely practical response, a purely moral reaction to them, is again -not religious.</p> - -<p class="center">* * * * * * *</p> - -<p>In primitive societies, as the studies of a Frazer<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> or a Rivers have -shown us, the whole of life is enmeshed with religion, and there is -scarcely an activity of man which is not spun round with religious -emotion and ritual. Very often the idea of God has not in this stage -been clearly formulated; there is simply a notion of <i>power</i>, of -mysterious influence, sometimes partly crystallized round a primitive -deity. Later, however, the power became frankly anthropomorphic, and -Gods came into being—many or one. Man had projected the idea of that -active agency he knew best—human personality—into his idea of cosmic -powers.</p> - -<p>Into the God thus fashioned there are always projected, to greater or -less degree, the ideals of the community; and thus, at a certain stage -of development, we find definitely tribal Gods. Here the biological -function of Gods becomes extremely obvious. The God, by his inspired -prophets and priests, orders the destruction of his rivals—the false -Gods of neighbouring tribes—or of his enemies, the members of those -tribes.</p> - -<p>The people of the tribe, however the result may have been brought -about, do as a matter of fact find themselves, all unconsciously, -caught up in the system which they and their forefathers have made. -They have fashioned their God so that their inmost life is joined -to him. When they sin, they fear him; when they look into their own -hearts to take stock of their ultimate ideals, they find that these are -attached, through the impalpable but infinitely <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span>resistant fibres of -tradition, of childish memory and of education, to him; he is on their -side against their enemies, so that their advantage is on the whole his.</p> - -<p>Whatever, therefore, arouses the idea of God in their minds will send -messages into every corner of their being. And if they can be firmly -persuaded that God wishes something done, the call will pull at their -heart-strings and bring them to convinced and united action.</p> - -<p>The most familiar example of this type of effect is to be found in the -history of the Jews in the Old Testament. But even to-day such tribal -ideas are not extinct: an educated and charming lady said to me during -the war—“I am convinced that if Jesus Christ were alive to-day He -would be fighting on the side of the Allies.” ...</p> - -<p class="center">* * * * * * *</p> - -<p>In our further analysis we must carefully distinguish between the -outer and inner components of the idea of God. The outer components -are the powers acting upon man. Some of these are inorganic—storms, -winds, floods, the sun and moon; others are organic—wild beasts, -pestilence, crops, and fruits, domesticated animals; others again -are human—personal or national enemies, the community in which the -individual lives. And they may act upon man’s body or upon his mind. -The sun warms his body, but makes an impression on his mind as well. -The practice of astrology shows what power can be exerted on the mind -by quite imaginary properties of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> external reality. But, whatever we -may think of these outer components, there they are, and they do affect -us for better or for worse. Before such a heterogeneous assemblage -as is constituted by the outer components can operate as a single -idea, can deserve a single name such as God, they must be elaborately -organized.</p> - -<p>The contribution to the idea of God from within, from the mind of man -himself, is its form; and this form is the outcome of a process of -mental organization every bit as real as the physical organization -occurring in the unborn embryo.</p> - -<p>The essential thing about both is, as we have indicated, that unity -should arise in spite of diversity, and the resulting entity—organism -in the one case, organized idea in the other—should thus be able to -act as a single whole.</p> - -<p>The system of ideas which man holds concerning external powers may be -thus organized by thinking of it in terms of magic, of “influence,” -manifesting itself in different ways in different operations of Nature; -or in terms of personality, the manifestations of power being supposed -to result from the activities of a being or beings more or less -similar to ourselves; or it may be organized, as we shall see, on more -scientific lines, by carefully pruning away all parts of it which are -either definitely the mere product of our own imaginations, or else are -not proven.</p> - -<p>Thus what we have called the raw material of Divinity is given in the -outer forces of nature, which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> not only act upon man as they act upon -all organisms, but are by him perceived so to act in a way special and -peculiar to man alone.</p> - -<p>But, being so perceived, they are inevitably taken up into his mental -life and made part of his mental organization. They are often perceived -emotionally—to take the simplest examples, pestilence with horror, -storm with fear, the growing of crops with gratitude. They are bound -to enter into relation with his emotions, with his ideals and hopes; -bound also to be in some degree generalized intellectually. When thus -emotionally and intellectually built up so as to form a coherent and -unitary idea, then only do they deserve the name of a God.</p> - -<p>In parenthesis, let us make it quite clear that we are speaking of God -and Gods as they operate in human affairs, as they can be classified -by the anthropologist, analysed by the philosopher, experienced by the -mystic. These have always been constituted as we have described—as a -particular <i>idea</i> of the powers of nature, the cosmic forces taking -shape through the moulding and organizing capacity of human thought, -or, if you prefer it, as an interpretation and unification of outer -and inner reality. The Absolute God, on the other hand, may be -one—may, in fact, operate as a unitary whole in the same sense as this -extraordinary product of the evolutionary process, this anthropological -God; but we can never know it as such in the same sense as we know a -person to be one. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span></p> - -<p>This may be illustrated by a common fallacy—the ascription of -personality to God on the ground that a purpose exists in the universe. -Paley saw proof of this purpose in adaptations among organisms. Modern -theologians, driven from this position by Darwin, take refuge with -Bergson in the fact of biological progress. But this, too, can be shown -to be as natural and inevitable a product of the struggle for existence -as is adaptation, and to be no more mysterious than, for instance, -the increase in effectiveness both of armour-piercing projectile and -armour-plate during the last century. The time has gone by when a Paley -could advance his “carpenter” view of God; when a Fellow of the Royal -Society could be sure of general approval, as could D. Pront in his -Bridgewater Treatise, with a work entitled <i>Chemistry, Meteorology, -and the Function of Digestion, considered with reference to Natural -Theology</i>, or when a distinguished geologist like Buckland (almost -foreshadowing later writers of a certain type on labour questions) -could ascribe to a Beneficent Designer the existence of Carnivora, as -a means to the increase of the “Aggregate of Animal Enjoyment,” and -solemnly open a sentence such as “while each suffering individual is -soon relieved from pain, it contributes its enfeebled carcass to the -support of its carnivorous benefactors.”</p> - -<p>No—purpose is a psychological term; and to ascribe purpose to a -process merely because its results are somewhat similar to those of -a true purposeful<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> process, is completely unjustified, and a mere -projection of our own ideas into the economy of nature. Where we -experience only phenomena of one order we cannot hope to reach behind -them to phenomena of another order, or to the Absolute.</p> - -<p>The ground is now cleared for our real investigation—our inquiry into -the task which Rationalism has before it in finding how best what we -have called the raw material of Divinity may be organized by the mind’s -activity, how best clothed with word or symbol to make it more the -common property of mankind as a whole.</p> - -<p>The current Christian conception of God is of a person who is also -the creator and the ruler of the universe. This person has certain -attributes—is omnipotent, omniscient, and somehow, in spite of all -the unhappiness and squalor and cruelty in the world, all-loving. He -has personal qualities—he created the universe, and all that is in -it; he takes pleasure in being worshipped; is displeased when men -or women neglect him, or commit crimes or sins; takes pity on the -follies and sufferings of man; and was so moved by them (albeit after -a very considerable period had elapsed since man had first appeared -upon the scene) that he sent his son into the world as a redeemer. -(For simplicity’s sake, I omit all reference to the complexities of -Trinitarian doctrine, which, however important in distinguishing -Christianity from other religions envisaging an omnipotent personal -God, do not affect the essential point at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> issue.) Further, he grants -petitions, reveals himself to certain chosen persons, and is enthroned -in a somewhat elusive heaven, where he is (or will be after the Day of -Judgment—opinions seem to differ somewhat on the subject) surrounded -by the immortal souls of the elect.</p> - -<p>Now this view, or any view of God as a personal being, is becoming -frankly untenable. The difficulty of understanding the functions -of a personal ruler in a universe which the march of knowledge is -showing us ever more clearly as self-ordered and self-ordering in -every minutest detail is becoming more and more apparent. Either a -personal God is a ruler without power, or he <i>is</i> the universe. In -the former case he becomes a mere fly on the wheel; in the latter we -revert to a frank pantheism, in which the idea of a personal Being -can no longer properly be upheld. A personal creation of the world, -in any reasonable sense of that term, is now meaningless except for -a hypothetical creation of the original substance of the cosmos in -the first instance. Creation of earth and stars, plants, animals, and -man—Darwin swept the last vestiges of that into the waste-paper basket -of outworn imaginations, already piled high with the debris of earlier -ages. After the psychological insight which the last half-century has -given us, miracles have ceased to be miracles, and have become either -delusions, or, more frequently, unusual phenomena for which a cause -has not yet been found. The immutability of the fundamental laws of -matter<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> and motion, more particularly the grand generalization of the -conservation of energy and the substitution by science of an orderly -for a disorderly conception of nature, make it impossible to think of -occasional interference by God with this world’s affairs. Accordingly -the value of petitionary prayer falls to the ground. Revelation and -inspiration have resolved themselves into exceptional mental states, -and are no longer looked upon as a sort of telepathy between divine -and human minds. If we reflect, we see that all these intellectual -difficulties in modern theology arise from the advance of scientific -knowledge, which has shown that the older ideas of God were only -symbolic, and therefore false when the attempt was made to give real -value to them.</p> - -<p>That being the quagmire in which traditional Christian theology -is floundering, it behoves us to discuss the opposite side of the -question, and to see whether the very advance of science which has -seemed to exert only a destructive influence may not have made it -possible to build up new and sounder conceptions of fundamental -religious ideas.</p> - -<p>We have already seen that the conception of God always represents -man’s idea of the powers operating in the universe; that it has two -components—the outer consisting of these powers so far as they are -known to man, the inner consisting in the mode in which the conception -is organized and the way it is related to the rest of the personality. -It is obvious that both man’s knowledge of the cosmic powers as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> well -as his method of organizing them in his mind can grow and change; and -man’s Gods can—and do—grow and change accordingly.</p> - -<p>The growth of science in the last few centuries has radically altered -our knowledge of the outer world. It has shown us, in the first place, -a fundamental unity of all phenomena, however apparently diverse. It -has shown us the inorganic part of the cosmos pursuing a direction—the -progressive degradation of energy—which, if it is carried to its -limit, will result in the extinction not only of life, but of all -activity. It has next shown us the organic part, sprung from the -inorganic but running a different course, ascending during evolutionary -time to increasing heights of complexity and to increasing control over -its inorganic environment.</p> - -<p>Finally, we have the psychozoic or human portion—that minute fraction -of the cosmos which yet is of a preponderant importance, since it -definitely represents the highest level yet reached by evolutionary -progress. In this sphere mind is the dominant partner, biologically -speaking, in the mind-matter partnership; evolution can begin to -be conscious instead of fortuitous; and true <i>values</i> arise which, -incorporated in ideals and purposes, exert an effect upon events.</p> - -<p>As regards our own mental organization, psychological science has -recently shown us the enormous importance of what we may call the -extra-personal portion of our mind—all that which is normally -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span>subconscious, or has not been during our mental growth incorporated -to form an integral part of our private personality. But this -extra-personal part of the mind may from time to time irrupt into the -personal, and does normally do so at some period of life. It is the -merit of psychology to have shown the true nature of this relationship -between personal and extra-personal, which was in the past a source of -an infinity of mistaken ideas—revelation, inspiration, possession, -direct communion with angels, saints, gods, or devils, and so forth.</p> - -<p>Thus the powers operating in the cosmos are, though unitary, yet -subdivisible; and, though subdivisible, yet related. There are the vast -powers of inorganic nature, neutral or hostile to man. Yet they gave -birth to evolving life, whose development, though blind and fortuitous, -has tended in the same general direction as our own conscious desires -and ideals, and so gives us an external sanction for our directional -activities. This again gave birth to human mind, which, in the race, is -changing the course of evolution by acceleration, by the substitution -of new methods for old, and by introducing values which are ultimate -for the human species; and, in the individual, provides, in the -interplay of conscious and subconscious, unbounded possibilities of the -invasion of the ordinary and humdrum personality of every day by ideas -apparently infinite, emotions the most disinterested and overwhelming. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span></p> - -<p>Still other light has of late years been thrown by psychology upon -the inner component of the idea of God. Recent work has shown, for -instance, that the mind, unless deliberately corrected and trained, -tends to think in terms of symbols instead of along the more arduous -paths of intellectual reasoning, tends to explain the unknown in terms -of the known, tends accordingly to project the familiar ideas of its -own personality as symbols for the explanation of the most varied -phenomena. The science of comparative religion has shown us an early -stage of religious belief in which but one idea held sway—the idea -of a magical influence residing in all things potent for good or ill: -the projection was so complete that no distinction whatever was made -between the personal and the impersonal. Later, the idea of particular -divine beings or Gods arose; and in early stages man still continued to -project not only his own passions, but even his own form, into these -divinities. The statement of Genesis that God made man in his own image -is in reality an admission of the converse process. Still later, the -divinity was purged of the grossness of human form and members, and, -gradually, of characteristically human passions; but God remained -personal, although the personality was now organized chiefly of ideals.</p> - -<p>There is, however, no reason whatever to admit that personality is a -genuine characteristic of any knowable God; but every reason to suspect -that it is, as a matter of hard fact, merely another product<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> of this -property of projection so strong in the human mind.</p> - -<p>On the other hand, an analysis of religious experience as a phenomenon, -as something equally worthy of patient and scientific study as the -gas-laws or the methods of evolution, shows that the powers which -move in the universe, when organized by thought into a God, are -apprehended by the majority of the great mystics and those to whom -religious experience has been richly granted as in some way personal. -Although, if our line of argument is valid, this will be partly due to -a projection of the idea of personality into the idea of God, yet it is -clearly in part due to the idea of God being organized by our mental -activity to be of the same general type as is a normal personality—as -something into which concepts of power, of knowledge, and of feeling -and will all enter, with such interconnections between its parts that, -like a personality, all of its resources are capable of mobilization -at any one point. It will be one of the great constructive tasks of -psychology to ascertain just how such a conception is organized, and -how it operates to produce the experiences, often of overpowering -intensity and lasting value, which as a matter of record it often -does.<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" >[43]</a></p> - -<p>Put broadly and roughly, there are, then, three main accounts possible, -or at any rate actually found in occidental civilization to-day, of -the phenomena<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> generally known as religious. The first is that of the -out-and-out sceptic—that they are all illusions, imaginations of the -childhood of the race. This is an extreme view which I do not feel -called upon to discuss. The second is the view of almost every existing -religious denomination in Europe—that God is a personal being. And -the third is one, only just beginning to take shape, which I have -endeavoured, with every consciousness of inadequacy, to outline—the -account made possible by a radically scientific view of the universe.</p> - -<p>Those who adopt the third attitude believe that the second is a purely -symbolic and not very accurate presentation of certain fundamental -facts, of which they are attempting to give what seems to them an -account which is closer to reality. Before the scientific work of the -last three or four centuries, it was impossible to attempt what we may -call a realistic account of this nature, so that symbols were perforce -adopted. In Christian theology man formulated a coherent scheme, which, -however, was purely symbolic, to account for the facts we have just -been considering. The chief feature in any such scheme must be the -conception of the powers with which man feels himself in relation; and -in this particular formulation his conception of these powers was that -of a God who was also a person.</p> - -<p>Now, the danger of symbols and symbolic thinking comes when the -symbols are accepted for real, and taken as they stand for bases from -which <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span>conclusions shall be drawn. The Christian theologians did not -hesitate—why should they, in their position?—to use the personal -nature of the Deity as one premiss in a whole series of syllogisms, and -to accept at their full face value the conclusions which emerged from -these syllogisms.</p> - -<p>If a personal God was ruler of the universe, then he must be -omnipotent; if truly divine, then omniscient; if worthy of worship, -then all-wise. He must be capable of interfering with the course -of events by “miracles,” of granting our prayers, of communicating -directly with us, of deciding our fate in afterlife. From these -conclusions yet further conclusions were drawn. If God revealed himself -in the Bible, then the Bible was “true” ... with all that this in its -turn involved as to our beliefs concerning natural causation, creation, -our relations with God, or personal immortality. The whole scheme was -self-consistent, and worked as well as many other human schemes. But -what if the whole premiss, of God as a personal being, ruler and father -and judge—what if this were not in fact tenable? Then, of course, the -whole edifice itself would come toppling down. That is what is actually -happening to-day. God, as personal ruler, is being slowly driven out -of the universe, but returning as this organized idea of which we have -spoken.</p> - -<p>Another cardinal point in the older systems has always been its claim -to possess a revelation of Truth which is in some real ways complete -and absolute. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span></p> - -<p>This leads us on immediately to a subject of especial interest to us -as rationalists—namely, the relation of religion to science and to -free inquiry. Religious beliefs, if they are really believed with any -conviction, will be to a greater or less extent dominant beliefs, -because by their nature they concern the general relationship between -man and his surroundings, which must bulk large in all our lives; and -it is matter of common experience with what obstinacy and fanaticism -they may be held. If therefore a system of religious belief includes -the belief that it is revealed, and therefore true with a more ultimate -and complete truth than the truths of observation or experiment, any -fact or idea which conflicts with any part of the system will be -inevitably treated not only as dangerous to the system, but as actually -evil: and this tendency is reinforced by the craving of the average man -for certainty, for intellectual satisfaction without undue intellectual -effort. The cynic who said that beliefs are generally held with an -intensity inversely proportional to the amount of evidence which can be -adduced in their support was not wholly or only cynical.</p> - -<p>Since, however, the progress of modern science, in addition to the -discovery of many wholly new facts, has largely consisted in a proper -investigation and a revaluation of the facts subsumed without full -analysis into the symbolism of theology, the inevitable result has been -for the two to find each other in constant antagonism. But be it noted -that it is not <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span>science and religion which are in conflict, but science -and a particular brand of religion.</p> - -<p>The essence of science is free inquiry combined with experimental -testing. The result is a body of knowledge, of fact, and -explanatory theory, which can properly be regarded as established. -By <i>established</i>, however, we do not mean that it is absolute or -immutable—we expect addition and modification. But we also expect -that, in the future as in the past, the additions and alterations will -not involve the scrapping and rebuilding of the whole edifice, but -that it will continue to be harmonious with itself, and to undergo a -gradual evolution. This has been so even with such marked changes as -the discovery of radioactivity, the new outlook in psychology, or the -rediscovery of Mendelism—the new, after apparent contradiction, has -been or is being harmoniously incorporated and organized with the old.</p> - -<p>This in its turn implies that toleration should ever be encouraged by -the scientist. Humility cannot be genuine if combined with unsupported -dogmatic assertion: and the recognition that the ideas of revelation -and divine personality are such dogmatic assertions brings a whole new -outlook into being.</p> - -<p>Putting matters in a nutshell, we can say that a system based on -revelation or on the pushing of unsupported premisses concerning -the nature of God to their complete logical conclusions is bound to -result in some degree of hostility to the pursuit of truth for its own -sake; whereas a religious system basing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> itself on scientific method, -while it must resign itself to being unable to produce a complete, -ready-made, and immutable scheme, however beloved of the multitude (and -indeed so beloved because it satisfies a lower and more primitive mode -of thinking only), on the other hand can be assured that its knowledge -and effectiveness will increase, and that contradictions will resolve -themselves, provided that free inquiry, free speech, and tolerance are -allowed and practised. Attempts to reconcile the old formulation with -the new facts and ideas, when not insincere, are doomed to failure -because the premisses of the two systems are different.</p> - -<p>In conclusion, we may perhaps point out some of the bearings of such -a change. In the first place, the change in our conception of God -necessitates the stressing of religious experience, as such, as against -belief in particular dogma, or in the efficacy of special ritual.</p> - -<p>Secondly, it emphasizes the need for tolerance and enlightenment. The -scientific view asserts not that its knowledge is absolute or complete, -but that, although relative and partial, it will indubitably continue -to grow harmoniously along the general lines already laid down.</p> - -<p>Another change wrought by the inclusion of all phenomena under one head -and the banishment of the supernatural is the inestimable advantage -that we thereby find the possibility of constructing a single general -view of the universe for civilization. At<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> present there are two that -matter—the orthodox religious and the scientific. The religious starts -from the top, the scientific from the bottom; but the scientific has -been creeping up, and now that it has begun to attack the problem -of mind it will be able to drown the other out. Since the current -religious formulation is only symbolic, it cannot become scientific; -but since the scientific is based on the closest possible analysis -of reality, it can become religious so far as it investigates the -realities of religious experience.</p> - -<p>Once it has done this, we shall be able to construct a <i>Weltanschauung</i> -such as never before, with roots in the ordered reactions of inorganic -matter, trunk strong with the steady progress of evolving life, and -branches reaching up into the highest realities of the spirit. Union is -strength; and it is one of the prime duties of educated men and women -to see that the present duality and antagonism at the heart of what -should be the central unity of civilization—of its most fundamental -idea, its conception of the universe—should be terminated.</p> - -<p>The new outlook will also interlock with the youthful science of -psychology to produce great results. Much of what now is interpreted, -by all save the few experts, in supernatural terms of the old theology -will become intelligible as a product of the natural workings of that -amazing thing, the human mind. We shall not have sects trying to -exploit the normal dissatisfactions and disharmonies of adolescence -in order to secure “conversions”; repressed tendencies<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> will not be -thought to be the voice of a personal Devil, nor neglected ideals the -voice of a personal God. Irrational fear, to-day still the greatest -enemy of mankind and most potent annihilator of happiness, will, by -comprehension of its curious mechanism and its persistence, often -transformed, from childhood to adult life, become amenable to treatment -and be made more and more to disappear. Proper analysis of mental -processes such as repression, suppression, and sublimation will enable -us to make better use of our faculties, and deliberately to build up -treasures of spiritual experience now attainable only by the lucky few -in whom temperament and circumstances accidentally conspire.</p> - -<p>On the moral side, the idea that a Divine command has, at some remote -period in the past, provided a fixed code, and the belief in the -immutable truth of certain dogmas—these will happily disappear. -Morals, like all else, not only have evolved, but should evolve. We -shall find, for instance, that no excuse will be left for the common -horrified (and horrible) views of sex, as of something inherently -hateful, of all its pleasures as involving sin; for it will be realized -that too much of the present attitude is due to the projection of our -own conflicts and complexes, our own pruriences and pruderies, into -what might be innocent and joyous. But this merits a fuller discussion -than we can here allot.</p> - -<p>Again, if I had space at my disposal, I would write of the changes in -the position and constitution of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span>religion brought about by changes -other than those in religious beliefs themselves. Most important, of -course, are the spread of education on the one hand, and the spread of -the facilities for the most varied spiritual enjoyment on the other. -If the people is educated to a point at which it can judge for itself, -it wants no special priests or clerical mediators; its mediators are -those who are specially fitted to unravel the intellectual, emotional, -and moral difficulties of its own day and for all time—poets, -philosophers, and men of science. The spread of facilities for reading, -for seeing plays and works of art, and hearing good music, means of -course that, whereas in ruder epochs the Church provided the principal -way of psychological sublimation, now sublimation and spiritual -refreshment can be achieved equally or more effectively (and every -whit as religiously) without ever frequenting a “place of worship” -or belonging to any denomination. This tendency towards fluidity and -plasticity, towards many possibilities of sublimation instead of one, -may by some be lamented. But, as a matter of fact, it is in full -accord with all we know of biological progress. Man has attained his -position of biological pre-eminence simply and solely by virtue of the -plasticity of his mind, which substitutes infinitude of potentiality -for the limited range of actuality given by the instinctive reactions -of lower forms. Humanity will always have some religion, and it will -always be of the utmost importance to man, both as individual and as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> -species. But the possibility of satisfying his religious tendencies -intellectually, emotionally, and morally, without rigid creed, limited -ritual, and iron-bound code of morals, will mean the liberation of all -that is best in religion from too narrow shackles, and the lifting it -on to a plane where it may be not only more free, but more rich.</p> - -<p>It is the task of Rationalism to see that religion, this fundamental -and important activity of man, shall neither be allowed to continue in -false or inadequate forms, nor be stifled or starved, but made to help -humanity in a vigorous growth that is based on truth and in constant -contact with reality.</p> - -<p class="center">(<i>For bibliography, see the end of the next essay.</i>)</p> - -<h3>FOOTNOTE:</h3> - -<p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43">[43]</a> See W. James, <i>Varieties of Religious Experience</i>; E. -Underhill, <i>Essentials of Mysticism</i>.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>VII</span> <span class="smaller">RELIGION AND SCIENCE: OLD WINE IN NEW BOTTLES</span></h2> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span></p> - -<p class="center">GOD AND MAN</p> - -<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div>The world of things entered your infant mind</div> -<div class="i1">To populate that crystal cabinet.</div> -<div class="i1">Within its walls the strangest partners met,</div> -<div>And things turned thoughts did propagate their kind.</div> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<div>For, once within, corporeal fact could find</div> -<div class="i1">A spirit. Fact and you in mutual debt</div> -<div class="i1">Built there your little microcosm—which yet</div> -<div>Had hugest tasks to its small self assigned.</div> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<div>Dead men can live there, and converse with stars:</div> -<div class="i1">Equator speaks with Pole, and Night with Day:</div> -<div>Spirit dissolves the world’s material bars—</div> -<div class="i1">A million isolations burn away.</div> -<div>The Universe can live and work and plan,</div> -<div>At last made God within the mind of man.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span></p> - -<p class="bold2">RELIGION AND SCIENCE:</p> - -<p class="bold2">OLD WINE IN NEW BOTTLES</p> - -<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div>“In la sua volontade è nostra pace.”</div> -<div class="i12">—<span class="smcap">Dante.</span></div> -</div></div></div> - -<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div>“Ye are the Gods if ye did but realize it.”—<span class="smcap">Carlyle.</span></div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>“The next great task of Science is to create a religion for humanity.” -So says Lord Morley in one of his essays. It is a striking saying, -coming as it does from one in whom thought and action have been so -intertwined, one to whom reason, not dogma, is the basis of morality, -achievement, not emotion, its justification.</p> - -<p>Let those words be my encouragement; for they challenge at the outset, -and to my mind rightly, two of the most persistent difficulties that -confront one who tries to write of the relations between Science and -Religion. The man of science too often asks what science can have -to do with what he brands as utterly and wholly unscientific; the -religiously-minded man demands what gain can follow from contact with -the cold and inhuman attitude of pure reason. To those questions I hope -that this essay will provide a partial answer. Meanwhile I shall begin -with a perhaps less ultimate but more pressing question. That question -is asked by many men and women of to-day, who on the one hand feel as -it were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> instinctively that religion of some sort is necessary for -life, yet on the other are unable to do violence to their intellectual -selves by denying the facts that reason and scientific inquiry reveal, -or by closing their eyes to them.</p> - -<p>The question, in briefest form, is this: “What room does science leave -for God?”</p> - -<p>To the savage, all is spirit. The meanest objects are charged with -influence, the commonest actions fraught with spiritual possibilities, -the operations of nature one and all are brought about by spiritual -powers—but powers multifarious and conflicting. “Nature can have -little unity for savages. It is a Walpurgis-nacht procession, a -checkered play of light and shadow, a medley of impish and elfish, -friendly and inimical powers.”<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" >[44]</a></p> - -<p>But with ordered civilization and dispassionate observation a network -of material cause and effect invaded this spiritual domain. The -mysterious influences, for example, believed to be inherent in springs -and running rivers became personified, and, anthropomorphized as nymphs -or gods, were removed into a seclusion more remote from practical -and everyday life than their unpersonified predecessors. Later, they -retreated still farther from actuality into a half-believed mythology, -and then passed away into the powerlessness of avowed fairy-story or -literary symbolism, while the rivers, perceived as the resultant of -natural forces, were more and more <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span>harnessed to man’s use. So with -the wind and the rain, the growth of crops, the storms of the sea. So, -in due time, with the thunder and the lightning, with earthquakes, -eruptions, comets, eclipses, pestilences.</p> - -<p>This process of liberating matter from arbitrary and mysterious power, -of perceiving it as orderly and endowed with regularity of natural -law, of bringing it more and more beneath human control, was, on the -other hand, accompanied by what may be called a combined condensation -and sublimation of the spiritual forces accepted by human faith. They -are built up from spirit to spirits, spirits to gods, gods to God. But -now it seems as if this condensation had reached its limit, and the -sublimation could only go farther by resolving the one God into an -empty name or the vaguest unreality.</p> - -<p>We look back and see the Gods of early man, and are complacently -prepared to believe that they were based in error, products of mental -immaturity, to be relegated to limbo without regret. But what about the -present? Why should we shrink from applying the same process to the God -of to-day?</p> - -<p>Is it then to be so with every God? Is God only a personified symbol -of our residuum of ignorance? Is to hold the idea of God in any form -to be, as Salomon Reinach believes, in an infantile stage of human -development, and must we with him define religion as “a sum of beliefs -impeding the free use of human faculty”?</p> - -<p>I think not; and I shall endeavour to justify my<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> belief to you, and -to show that, albeit much alteration and a thorough revision of ideas -is needed, the term <i>God</i> has an important scientific connotation, and -further that the present stagnation of religion can be remedied if, as -has happened again and again in biological evolution, the old forms -become extinct or subordinate, and a new dominant type is developed -along quite fresh lines.</p> - -<p>In any case the man of science must obviously, if he face the problem -at all, take up a scientific attitude of mind towards it. He cannot -say that there is no such thing as religion; or try to whittle it away -by explaining that it is something else—a complicated fear, or a -sublimated sex-instinct, or a combination of credulity and duplicity. -A thing, if it is a thing at all, is never merely something else. Nor -can he submit to the pretensions of those who assert that it is too -sacred to be touched, or that its certainties are greater than those -of science. No—he must treat it for what it is—a fact, and a very -important fact at that, in human history: and he must see whether the -application of scientific method to its study—in other words, its -illumination by the faculty of pure intellect—will help not only our -comprehension of religion in the past, but its actual development in -the future.</p> - -<p>He can study it in various ways. He can use the method of observation -and comparison, collecting and collating facts until he is able to give -a connected account of the manifestations of religion and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> of their -past history; he can study it physiologically, so to speak, to see what -part it plays in the body politic, and how that part may alter with -circumstances; or he may seek to investigate its essence, to discover -not only how it appears and what it does, but what it <i>is</i>.</p> - -<p>Further, he must have some general principles to lean on in his search, -principles both positive and negative. He must be content to leave -certain possibilities out of account because as yet he cannot see how -they can be connected with his organized scheme of things; in other -words, he has to be content to build slowly and imperfectly in order -that he may be sure of building soundly. This is the principle which we -may call positive agnosticism.</p> - -<p>This very fact has been in the past one of the great obstacles in -the way of successful treatment of religion by science. One of the -attributes of man is his desire for a complete explanation, or at -least a complete view, of his universe, and this has been at the -bottom of much doctrine and many creeds. But before Kepler and Newton, -no truly scientific account could be given of celestial phenomena; -before Darwin, none of Natural History; before the recent revival -in psychology, none of the mind and its workings. In the second -half of the nineteenth century, for instance, science could give an -adequate account of most inorganic phenomena, and, in broad outline, -of evolutionary geology and biology; but mind was still refractory. -Accordingly, the philosophy of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span>science was mainly materialist. But the -common man felt that mind was not the empty epiphenomenon that orthodox -science would have it; and he desired a scheme of things in which mind -should be more adequately explained than it could be by science at its -then stage of development. <i>Hinc illae lacrimae.</i></p> - -<p>To-day it is at least possible to link up, not only physics and -chemistry and geology and evolutionary biology, but also anthropology -and psychology, into a whole which, though far from complete, is at -least organized and coherent with itself. If the seventeenth century -cleared the ground for that dwelling-place of human mind which we -call the scientific view of things, if the eighteenth century laid -the foundations and the nineteenth built the walls, the twentieth is -already fitting up some of the rooms for actual habitation.</p> - -<p>There are certain other domains of reality which have not yet been -properly investigated by science. Telepathy, for instance, and the -whole mass of phenomena included broadly under the term spiritualism, -are in about the some position with regard to organized scientific -thought to-day as was astronomy before astrology’s collapse, as was the -study of electricity in the eighteenth century, or that of hypnotism -in the middle of the nineteenth. What is more, the average man demands -that phenomena of this order shall be included in his scheme of things. -Science cannot yet do this for him; and accordingly the dwelling-place -that we are building must still<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> be incomplete; it is for those who -come after to build the upper stories.</p> - -<p>This cannot be helped. What we build, we must build firmly; on what is -yet to be built, science cannot pronounce, except to say that she knows -that it will be congruous with what has gone before.</p> - -<p>What general principles, then, do we assume? We assume that the -universe is composed throughout of the same matter, whose essential -unity, in spite of the diversity of its so-called elements, the recent -researches of physicists are revealing to us; we assume that matter -behaves in the same way wherever it is found, showing the same mode -of sequence of change, of cause and effect. We assume, on fairly -good although indirect evidence, that there has been an evolution of -the forms assumed by matter; that, in this solar system of ours, for -instance, matter was once all in electronic form, that it then attained -to the atomic and the molecular; that later, colloidal organic matter -of a special type made its appearance, and later still, living matter -arose. That the forms of life, simple at first, attained progressively -to greater complexity; that mind, negligible in the lower forms, became -of greater and greater importance, until it reached its present level -in man.<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" >[45]</a></p> - -<p>Unity, uniformity, and development are the three great principles that -emerge. We know of no instance where the properties of matter change, -though many where a new state of matter develops. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> full properties -of a molecular compound such as water, for instance, cannot be deduced -at present from what we know about the properties of its constituent -atoms of hydrogen and oxygen. The properties of the human mind cannot -be deduced from our present knowledge of the minds of animals. New -combinations and properties thus arise in time. Bergson miscalls -such evolution “creative.” We had better, with Lloyd Morgan, call it -“emergent.”</p> - -<p>With mind, we find a gradual evolution from a state in which it is -impossible to distinguish mental response from physiological reaction, -up to the intensity and complexity of our own emotions and intellect. -Since all material developments in evolution can be traced back step by -step and shown to be specializations of one or more of the primitive -properties of living matter, it is not only an economy of hypothesis, -but also, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, the proper -conclusion, that mental properties also are to be traced back to the -simplest and most original forms of life. What exact significance is -to be attached to the term “mental properties” in such organisms, it -is hard to say; we mean, however, that something of the same general -nature as mind in ourselves is inherent in all life, something standing -in the same relation to living matter in general as do our minds to the -particular living matter of our brains.</p> - -<p>But there can be no reasonable doubt that living<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> matter, in due -process of time, originated from non-living; and if that be so, we must -push our conclusion farther, and believe that not only living matter, -but all matter, is associated with something of the same general -description as mind in higher animals. We come, that is, to a monistic -conclusion, in that we believe that there is only one fundamental -substance, and that this possesses not only material properties, but -also properties for which the word <i>mental</i> is the nearest approach. We -want a new word to denote this <i>X</i>, this world-stuff; <i>matter</i> will not -do, for that is a word which the physicists and chemists have moulded -to suit themselves, and since they have not yet learned to detect or -measure mental phenomena, they restrict the word “material” to mean -“non-mental,” and “matter” to mean that which has such “material” -properties.</p> - -<p>You will remember William of Occam’s razor; “Entia non multiplicanda -praeter necessitatem”; when we are monists in the sense I have just -outlined, we are using that weapon to shave away a very unrestrained -growth of hair which has long obscured the features of reality.</p> - -<p>Holding to these principles, we must, until evidence to the contrary -is produced, reject any explanation which proceeds by cataclysms, or -by miracles; a miracle becomes (when not an illusion) simply an event -which is on the one hand uncommon, and for which, on the other, there -has been found no <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span>explanation. Revelation too goes by the board—save -a revelation which is simply a name for the progressive increase of -knowledge and insight.</p> - -<p>Last, but not least, we do not pretend to know the Absolute. We -know phenomena, and our systems, in so far as scientific, are -interpretations of phenomena.</p> - -<p class="center">* * * * * * *</p> - -<p>Religion has been defined in a hundred different ways. It has been -defined intellectually—as a creed; as myth; as a view of the universe; -it has been defined emotionally as consisting in awe; in fear; in love; -in mystical exaltation or communion. It has been defined from the -standpoint of action—as worship; as ritual; as sacrifice; as morality. -Matthew Arnold called it “morality tinged with emotion”; Salomon -Reinach “a sum of scruples impeding the free use of human faculties.” -Jevons makes the experiencing of God the central feature; and so on -and so forth. Is it possible to find any common measure for all these -statements? Would it not be better to unite with those who cut the -Gordian knot by writing down all religion simply as illusion? No. For -their point of view is meaningless. Even illusions are, in themselves, -facts to be investigated; and even illusions have a basis.</p> - -<p>But it is not necessary to believe that it is an illusion; the knot may -be untied. Ritual, Creed, Morality, Mystical Experience—all these are -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span>manifestations of religion, but not religion itself. Religion itself -is the reaction between man as a personality on the one side, and, on -the other, all of the universe with which he comes in contact. It is -not only ritual, for you may have obviously non-religious ritual, as -in a court ceremonial or a legal function: it is not merely morality, -for men may practise morality, the most austere or the most <i>terre à -terre</i>, uninspired by anything that could remotely be called religious: -it is not belief, for we may have beliefs of all kinds, even to the -most complex scientific beliefs concerning the universe, which have yet -no connection with religion: it is neither communion in itself, nor -ecstasy in itself, as many lovers and poets could tell you.</p> - -<p>But because it is a reaction of the whole personality, it must involve -intellectual <i>and</i> practical <i>and</i> emotional processes: and because man -has the powers of abstraction and association, or rather because his -mind in most cases cannot help making associations and abstractions, -it follows that it will inevitably concern itself, consciously or -subconsciously, with all the phenomena that it encounters, will try to -bring them all into its scheme, and will try to unify them and frame -concepts to deal with them as a whole.</p> - -<p>Some men will be more concerned on the emotional, others on the -intellectual, others again on the moral side: but it is impossible to -separate any one of the three aspects entirely from the others. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span></p> - -<p>We will begin with and treat mainly of the intellectual aspect of -the problem, the credal side. For one thing, science has more direct -concern with it than with the others; for another, more continuous -and startling alterations have had to be made in it; and finally, the -actual problem is there felt most acutely at the present moment.</p> - -<p>What, then, is the problem? In the terms of our definition of religion, -it is in its most general terms as follows: Man has to live his life -in a world in which he is confronted with forces and powers other than -his own. He is a mere animalcule in comparison with the totality of -these forces, his life a second in comparison with their centuries. By -his mental constitution, he of necessity attempts to formulate some -intelligible account of the constitution of the world and its relation -to himself—or should we rather say in so far as it is in relation to -himself?—and so we have a myth, a doctrine, or a creed.</p> - -<p>At the present moment, as we have already seen, there appears to be -an irreconcilable conflict between orthodox Christianity and orthodox -Natural Science. The one asserts the existence of an omnipotent, -omniscient, personal God—creator, ruler, and refuge. The other, by -reducing ever more and more of natural phenomena to what we please to -call natural laws—in other words, to orderly processes proceeding -inevitably from the known constitution and properties of matter—has -robbed such a God of ever more and more of his realm and possible -power; until<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> finally, with the rise of evolutionary biology and -psychology, there seems to be no place any more for a God in the -universe.</p> - -<p>Stated thus, the opposition is complete. But let us return on our -footsteps, and trace for one thing some of the history of religious -beliefs, for another re-investigate, from a slightly unusual -standpoint, the actual knowledge of the Universe which science has -given us.</p> - -<p>Man has developed: in early stages, his physical and mental capacities -developed; in later stages development has been mainly restricted to -his traditions, ideas, and achievements. As part of his development, -his religious ideas have altered too.</p> - -<p>At the beginning, he appears to have no ideas of a God of Gods at -all—merely of influences and powers, obviously (he would say) inherent -in the forces of Nature, magically inherent in certain objects and -actions—fetishes and incantations. He seems scarcely to have been -conscious of himself as an individual, or of the full distinction -between self and the external world.</p> - -<p>Later, perhaps as the idea of his own personality grew, he began to -ascribe a more personal existence to the forces with which he came -into contact, and so to turn them more and more into beings that can -properly be called Gods: polydaemonism arose and in its turn gave place -to polytheism.</p> - -<p>But while rigid custom was at first the only morality, and each -external power and each human <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span>activity was regarded separately, -later the rise of civilization led to a modification of custom, to a -reference of action and belief to the standards of pure reason, and to -an attempt at unification. Once this occurred, and equally so whether -the attempt at unification had an intellectual or a moral basis, -polytheism was doomed. Its downfall has been often described; the -reasons for it are suggestively put by Jevons in his little book, “The -Idea of God.” It passes through a stage where one among the gods is -pre-eminent: but finally even that does not suffice, and in its place -arises a monotheistic creed.</p> - -<p>Monotheism may start as a purely local or tribal affair—my one God -against yours. It may not only start, but long continue so. Readers of -Mr. Bang’s collection of startling German war-sayings will remember the -superbly national prayer of the Prussian pastor who addressed his God -(I quote from memory) as “Du, der hoch über Cherubinen, Seraphinen, -und Zeppelinen ewig trönst.” (J. P. Bang, <i>Hurrah and Hallelujah</i>. -London, 1916.) But this idea, too, is self-contradictory, and merges -into that of one God for all men. The primitive anthropomorphism -which had invested the first vague and mysterious spirits with human -parts and passions, human speech and thought, also fell into gradual -desuetude. It was kept up as a symbol, or because of the difficulty of -describing a God except in terms human individuality, but its literal -truth was deliberately denied. God became different from and more -than<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> man—omnipotent, omniscient, with no parts, with no limitations: -but he retained personality—in other words, a mental or spiritual -organization of the same general kind as man’s, however superior in -degree. With time, the divine personality became compounded more and -more of man’s ideals instead of his everyday thoughts and attributes. -And thus and that God remains. He has created everything; he is in -some sense immanent in the world, in some sense apart from it as its -ruler—you take your choice according to your philosophic preferences. -Beyond that, organized religious thought has not gone; and now it finds -itself fronting science in an impasse.</p> - -<p>That, very briefly and roughly, is how man’s idea of God has developed. -But how have man’s knowledge and ideas of the natural universe -developed? What has Science to say to the impasse?</p> - -<p>Man has to deal with three great categories of phenomena—the -inorganic, the organic, and the psychic. In the inorganic, chemistry -first and then physics have given us a picture whose broad outlines -are now familiar. There is but one type and store of energy in Nature, -whether it drives a train, animates a man, radiates in heat or light, -inheres in a falling stone. There is but one substance. All bodies of -trees, of men, rivers and rocks, the clouds in the air and the air -itself, precious stones and common clay—all can be resolved into a -limited number of elements. And these elements in their turn can be -resolved into combinations, differing, it appears, only<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> quantitatively -from each other, of electrical charges; so that at the last all matter -is one, and becomes perhaps indistinguishable, or at least inseparable, -from energy. There is no personal operator for particular happenings; -the lightning and the volcano are the inevitable outcome of the -material constitution of things, equally with the form and colour of a -pebble and with the fact that it will drop to the ground if it is let -fall. All is impersonal order and unity.</p> - -<p>There is, however, one other great fact about the system of inorganic -matter. The energy contained in it tends to be degraded, as the -physicists say—in other words to become less readily available. There -is available energy in moving matter. There is potential energy in all -matter, dependent upon whether it can be set in motion. But if the sea -were to cover the whole surface of the globe, it would be impossible to -extract energy from running water as we do now, because no water would -be running. So too heat is energy; but it is only available when it -can flow, when there are hotter and colder bodies. The law under which -transformations of energy operate has now been investigated, and it has -been established that in every energy-transaction a certain modicum -goes to waste as unavailable heat, so that, unless some at present -unforeseen change occurs, the last state of the universe, considered -as a purely physico-chemical mechanism, will be one of death, of -inactivity, with all matter at a uniform low temperature and the whole -stock of energy locked up and unavailable<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> in this sea of tranquillity. -True for one thing that an almost inconceivable number of millions -of years must elapse before this “death of matter” is realized; and -for another that we are unable to understand how such a progressive -degradation could have been in operation from all eternity. We must -not expect complete knowledge within a few years or a few centuries; -but even if the beginning is veiled—for there is no more evidence for -a “creation” than for (say) a rhythmic reversal of the direction of -energy-availability—and if it is always possible that some unforeseen -change in the process should occur before the whole runs down, yet -it is a fact (and we are resolved to be agnostic save about facts) -that, here and now, a direction is to be observed in the evolution of -inorganic matter, by which natural operations are tending to become -less active, and the amount of available energy is diminishing. If -it continues indefinitely, first life, and later on all activity and -change whatsoever will cease. There is a tendency towards death and -towards unchanging inactivity.</p> - -<p>The next great category is that of the organic, of living matter. We -have to consider its origin and later history. So far as constitution -goes, living matter is merely a special and highly complicated form -of ordinary matter; and there can be no reasonable doubt that it has -originated naturally from non-living matter.</p> - -<p>While the <i>main</i> direction of the inorganic has been towards -degradation of energy, it has shown another<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> subsidiary direction -towards the production of more and more complex forms of matter. If our -general ideas are correct, there must have been a time when matter in -our ordinary sense of the word did not exist—there can have been no -atoms, only free electrons. From this state, there evolved one in which -the various electron-systems that we call atoms first appeared; later -still, atoms could join with atoms to produce molecules. Leaping over -vast periods, we would come to the time when radiation had brought the -temperature of the earth surface below 100 degrees centigrade; water -then could form from steam and solution occur. Through solution, all -soluble elements, which would otherwise remain locked in the inactivity -of the solid state, are enabled to enter upon a new phase of mobility, -of chemical life, as we may say. Only in water could colloid carbon -compounds first be built up, and only from such substances could life -originate.</p> - -<p>Living substance, or at least much of it, must be formed of molecules -containing thousands of atoms, each atom in its turn a system of -circling electrons. Here already is a vast increase of complexity: it -remains to be seen whether the same tendency is perpetuated later.</p> - -<p>The evolutionary concept is to biology what the doctrine of the -conservation of energy has been in the physico-chemical sciences—an -indispensable preliminary to proper methods of attack. But while great -stress has been laid on the various <i>methods</i> by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> which evolution -may be supposed to have taken place—natural selection, Lamarckism, -orthogenesis and the rest—biology has concerned herself comparatively -little with the <i>form</i> of the process in itself. But it is here that -evolution becomes of value to us in our present search; for once more -we become aware of a direction. Partly from the direct evidence of -palaeontology, partly from indirect evidence, but along many converging -lines, we can form an idea of this direction which in broad outlines is -unassailable.</p> - -<p>During life’s existence on earth—a period to be reckoned in hundreds -and probably in thousands of millions of years—there has been an -increase in various of its attributes. But just as in the inorganic -world electrons and atoms still exist as such side by side with -molecules, so also the earlier types of living matter continue to -exist side by side with the later. The increase is not therefore -seen uniformly in all forms at once, but is most easily observed by -studying the <i>maximum</i> level attained. Size, for instance, is one of -these attributes; and whereas to-day all variations are to be found -between ultra-microscopic disease-germs and vast organisms like whales -and elephants, there has been a gradual steadying increase (tending to -a limit) in the size of the <i>largest</i> organisms existing at any one -period.</p> - -<p>If we confine ourselves for the moment to the material side, we find -that the directional change in organic evolution can be reduced to -this—to an <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span>increase of the control exercised by living matter over -the environment, and of its independence of the environment—two -reciprocal aspects of a single process. When we look more closely into -the means by which this has been achieved, we shall see an increase of -the maximum not only in size, but in complexity, in length of life, -in efficiency of particular organs, in co-ordination of parts and -general harmony, in improvement of sense-organs, and, continuing even -after other tendencies have reached their limits, in brain-size and -consequently in complexity of mode of reaction and behaviour.</p> - -<p>If we turn to the psychological side, we find that there has been an -increase in the intensity of mental process. This is apparent in all -aspects of mind, on that of emotion equally with that of knowledge, -of volition equally with that of emotion. To be an amoeba or a worm -is to live a life almost without windows. Perfection of sense-organs -makes it possible for life to be aware of the different types of -outer events, whilst memory and, later, associative memory give the -possibility of understanding their history. In higher forms volition -can be maintained for longer and longer intervals, can attain greater -intensity, and can fix itself upon ever more and more distant objects. -With depth of feeling comes also differentiation, so that finally we -find in ourselves the possibility of organizing various blends of the -simple emotions into the compound emotional forms<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span> such as reverence -and admiration, called <i>sentiments</i> by McDougall.</p> - -<p>Biologically speaking, therefore, the direction observable in -mental evolution is again towards increased control and increased -independence; by mental and cerebral improvement there is introduced -a greater accuracy and a greater range of control, as well as better -adjustment between organisms and environment, than would be otherwise -possible to the same bodily organs.</p> - -<p>The direction of life may therefore be roughly summed up in the two -words “more life”—more both in quantity (have not both land and air -been colonized during evolution?) and also in quality. More matter -has been stolen from the lifeless and embodied in the living; and the -living begins to be less helpless in face of the lifeless.</p> - -<p>The direction of living matter is thus in many ways opposed to the -direction to be seen in inorganic matter; yet not only has the organic -arisen from the inorganic, but its direction continues one direction -already traceable before the appearance of life.<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" >[46]</a></p> - -<p>Finally, we come to the psychological aspect of the universe. We have -already touched on it in connection with biology, and found that in -many ways at least the development of mind follows the same lines as -that of living matter, and helps forward the general trend of life. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span></p> - -<p>But finally a kink occurs, a critical point similar to that seen at the -origin of living from non-living matter. There the attributes of living -matter which mark it off from inorganic matter become dominant—its -capacity for self-reproduction, its tendency to organization. The -colloid carbon compound had been the highest known independent unit; -from now on this place was taken by the organism.</p> - -<p>In exactly the same way, in the final stages of evolution (as witnessed -abundantly by fossil mammals) complexity of purely bodily organization -had reached a limit, and survival, as is evidenced by increasing size -of brain, came to be determined more and more by mental qualities. -Finally the curve of mental development caught up with that of body, -and intersected it: mind became the dominant factor in the new type of -organism, and in the subsequent history of the evolutionary process. -The <i>organism</i> ceased to be the highest unit, and gave place to the -<i>person</i>, or self-conscious individual with organized mind.</p> - -<p>This new critical point was reached when man arose; many authors -recognize it for what it is, the beginning of a new era, by christening -the subsequent geological period the Psychozoic. That period, -geologically speaking, has not yet run but a tiny span; and we are -no more entitled to think that we have reached or even imagined the -possibilities of its future evolution than we should have been entitled -to regard the possibilities of purely biological<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> evolution as having -been exhausted after the far longer period needed to give rise to a -coral polyp or a jelly-fish as highest existing types of organism. Even -man as a biological species is in his infancy, not to speak of other -psychozoic types that may be waiting in the womb of time.</p> - -<p>But what are the characteristics of this new phase? In the first -place, mind has become self-conscious; thus the evolutionary methods -of psychozoic organisms may become conscious, and they come to direct -their own evolution instead of having their destinies shaped by the -blind forces of natural selection.</p> - -<p>In most respects the same direction as before is pursued, but new -methods are introduced. The rate of change, of movement in that -direction, is accelerated; and the possibility is given of eliminating -a vast deal of waste. A watchmaker sends out very few defective -watches: why? because he makes his watches on a preconceived plan. -Even when an improvement in watch construction is introduced, he can -draw up his plan beforehand, and at the worst, waste only time and -paper, instead of metal and far more time. Ideas do not need to be -embodied before selection can act upon them; thus an increasing amount -of evolutionary change will take place through the natural selection -of ideas than through the older and far more wasteful process, natural -selection of individuals and species.</p> - -<p>Finally, values appear upon the scene. If we could ask a wild animal -such as a fox what gave value to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> its life, and it could answer us, it -would doubtless say food, sleep, comfort, hunting, sexual pleasure, and -family companionship. But it cannot answer; nor can it know the value -of what it pursues, but only appreciate the result. Strictly speaking, -values do not exist for it. However, even if we allow ourselves to -speak of values in the life of pre-human organisms, we see immediately -that wholly new values are introduced after the critical point.</p> - -<p>Putting it summarily, we can say that, with the rise of mind to -dominance, various activities of mind come to be pursued for their -own sake, to have value in themselves. Our life is worth living not -only for the sake of eating and drinking, sleeping, athletics, and -sexual pleasure. There is a value attached to knowledge for its own -sake, apart from the possible access of control that it may bring. -But this is new, a property of man alone; not even Athena’s owl will -exert itself through laborious years to understand celestial mechanics -or physiology. The highest anthropoids do not attempt to create works -of art, which for man come to have value in themselves. Natural -beauty comes to have its value too; a cow (so far as known!) does not -interrupt the business of its life to admire the sunset, whereas men -may and do. Behaviour also is implicated; with the entry upon the scene -of that practically unlimited number of possible reactions which give -us what we call free will and choice, there comes a conviction that -some modes of action are higher than others;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> and so a scale of moral -values comes into being.<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" >[47]</a></p> - -<p>Nor is it merely that values, in the strict sense, are created; nor -that new values come into being. But with the enlargement of mind and -its more perfect organization, there arises a new method of appraising -values, and so a new type of value altogether. I mean of course the -so-called <i>absolute values</i>. Absolute values are never absolute in the -sense of absolute completeness; they are relative to two things—to -external reality and to our mental powers and organization.<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" >[48]</a> They -are abstractions; we generalize the value in our minds, and at the same -time raise it to the highest pitch of intensity we can. An interesting -point arises from this way of thinking. Apart from the guarantee of -our own convictions, the observable direction of living nature is -our guarantee of right: or one had better say that it is at once the -guarantee and the touchstone of our convictions. But two things may be -moving in the same direction, and, if one be moving much slower than -the other, the slower may impede the faster; a pedestrian procession -making eastward along Fleet Street<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> will hold up the life of the city -for a time, and cows walking along railways are treated as obstacles by -trains proceeding in the same direction. So it comes about that much -that was once progressive in organic evolution has become an obstacle -or a drag to psychozoic evolution; it is <i>relatively</i> retrogressive, -and, from our present standpoint, bad. To take the simplest and most -fundamental example: evolution by blind natural selection was the -method of progress for organisms below man. Unceasing struggle and -courage was the chief factor in producing the grandeur and strength of -the lion, the swiftness and grace of deer, the brilliance and lightness -of the birds. But if the same end can be obtained both more quickly -and more bloodlessly by new methods, then the old stands condemned. -Here lies the key to the problem propounded by Huxley in his Romanes -Lecture—the problem of man’s relation to the rest of the cosmic -process, at once sprung from it by gradual generation and separated -from it by an absolute and unbridgeable chasm, at once one with it and -in deadly combat with it and all its ways.</p> - -<p>Our mode of envisaging the problem illuminates it, and shows it as -inevitable and intelligible instead of insoluble and tormenting; and -illuminates too many other minor problems of good and evil. But all -this is a side-issue: <i>revenons à nos moutons</i>.</p> - -<p>Unknown, or neutral, or hostile power: a movement similar in direction -to the direction in which history on the whole shows we are moving, and -to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> that which we desire with our highest aspirations, but operating -blindly; an acceleration of that movement by the coming of mind to -biological predominance, with certain consequent minor changes in -direction by major changes in speed and in methods. Three tendencies, -but all founded in one unity, and each arising out of the other—that -is the picture drawn for us by the present state of science. In this -sense, and in this only, can it be said that “all things work together -for righteousness.”</p> - -<p>One word on an important side-issue—the problem of evil in man, of -stagnancy and degeneration in organic evolution. Degeneration often -does occur—a reversal, in other words, of the main tendency. But the -positive fact remains that the <i>maximum</i> level is progressively raised, -and that we find that stagnation of development and even sometimes -degeneration have been factors indirectly helping on the main direction.</p> - -<p>We must accept the positive main direction for what it is—an external -sanction of faith; confess that we do not understand the detailed -working of the whole, but see in the change of methods brought about -by the rise of mind a hope that we shall gradually learn at least to -dispense with much waste and evil and degeneration in the further -course of evolution.</p> - -<p>This main direction gives us cause for optimism. The exceptions to it -temper that optimism. But the direction is there. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span></p> - -<p>As we shall see later, we may either call the sum of the forces acting -in the cosmos the manifestations of God, who in this case must be the -Absolute God, and unknowable except through these manifestations. Or we -may confine the term God to its anthropological usage, as denoting the -objects of human religion, in which case we must admit that the term -God as understood by man is constituted by <i>man’s idea of</i> the forces -acting in the cosmos, so that not only are these forces involved, not -only a possible Absolute God behind them, but also the organizing power -of human mind.</p> - -<p>I wish you here to agree to my adopting the second alternative and -giving the name of God to the sum of the forces acting in the cosmos as -perceived and grasped by human mind. We can therefore now say that God -is one, but that though one, has several aspects. There is one aspect -of God which is neutral to us, in a way hostile, mere Power operating -in the vastness of the stellar universes, apprehended only as orderly, -tending in a direction which appears to be in the long run inimical. -It is to this aspect of God that Mr. Wells has given the name of the -Veiled Being—a somewhat primitive term for a true idea. There is -another aspect, which is the one seen operating in that sphere which -comprises the whole of life upon this earth—a sphere infinitesimal -in relation to the whole, yet still vast in relation to ourselves. -This aspect of God is our refuge and guarantee, for here we find -our assurance that our human life is a part of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> a whole that is not -antagonistic, but moves in the same general direction as do our history -and our aims. There does exist, in Matthew Arnold’s words, “a power, -not ourselves, that makes for righteousness.” And this second aspect -is not wholly separate from the first, in spite of its difference of -direction; for the first is its parent, physically and temporally, and -the direction of biological progress is the continuation of a line of -development marked out, within the opposed inorganic direction, even -from the first.</p> - -<p>Next, there is a more immediate and more often demanded assurance that -we, as individuals or as single communities in space or time, are at -one with humanity as a whole. Here it is that we look to the third -aspect of God, which enshrines the directive forces operating in man. -These directive forces are our instincts, our needs, our values, our -ideals. When those are harmonized with each other and with the outer -world by reason and experience, they form a power which we can see -has been directive, normative in the past, and will continue to be so -in the future. It alters with man’s development; but after a first -rudimentary phase, its main outlines, its type of organization remain -the same, for man’s instincts and ideals do not greatly change, and -their harmonization with each other and with experience will generally -proceed in the same broad way. Although in a sense this aspect is the -smallest, as comprising the smallest physical field, yet in another -it is the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span>largest, since man’s ideals are in themselves unlimited, -non-finite; and the values involved, to our present type of mind, -appear ultimate. This third aspect of God is again historically the -offspring of the second, and through the second of the first.</p> - -<p>Matter, life, mind—this is the simplest classification of phenomena. -By means of processes analogous to obtaining a resultant by the -parallelogram of forces, we can obtain a resultant of material -operations in general, vital operations in general, and mental -operations in general, numerous and varied in direction though they be. -Life is the link between the other two. Living matter is so definitely -one with non-living matter, not at all obviously one with mind; yet the -direction of living matter is obviously similar to that of mind, not at -all obviously one with that of non-living matter.</p> - -<p class="center">* * * * * * *</p> - -<p>It is a simple fact that the conception which man has of the universe -and its relation to himself exercises important effects upon his -life. A name therefore is needed for this anthropological phenomenon. -<i>God</i> is the usual name applied, and we shall retain it in default -of another, premissing that the word, like many similar general -terms—“love,” or “life,” or “beauty,” say—can be defined and applied -in many ways, and that we apply it here in a particular and perhaps -somewhat novel sense.</p> - -<p>God in this sense is the universe, not as such, but so far as grasped -as a whole by a mind, embodied in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> an idea,<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" >[49]</a> and in consequence -capable of influencing that mind, and through it the whole course -of events. It is not grasped as a mere sum of details, but, however -vaguely and imperfectly, as a single idea, unitary in spite of its -complexity. Nor is it the universe in itself, but only so far as it -has been thus grasped by mind. There exists no other meaning of the -term which, on analysis, is found to convey anything, or at least -anything scientific or comprehensible, to us. We may reason that there -is an Absolute God behind the universe and our idea of it. But we have -no proof of this statement, and such an Absolute God is, as Spencer -pointed out, an Unknowable, and accordingly no concern of ours. That -part and these aspects of the universe which have been grasped by us -may prove to contain the key to many of our difficulties; meanwhile -we can only be humble and admit that our idea of God, even in this -restricted sense, is still extremely incomplete: and in this sense -there is a God far greater than our present idea and knowledge of God, -only waiting to be discovered.</p> - -<p>That which it is essential to establish is our way of looking at the -problem. The universe does come into<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> relation with our minds, and -there, owing to the way it and our minds are organized, generates an -idea which exerts an influence upon us.</p> - -<p>The external basis of the idea of God is thus constituted by the forces -operating in the universe. The universe is a unitary whole, greater and -more powerful than ourselves, and its operations have resultants in -certain main directions—these are phenomena which we constatate like -any other phenomena. They, and that other phenomenon of our contact -with the Universe and our exposure to the play of its forces, give us -our objective knowledge of God. The rest of our idea of God, the inner -component, depends upon the mode of action of our minds.</p> - -<p>So far, then, we have shown that recent advance in science, -particularly in our understanding of evolution, has enabled us to give -a more objective account than ever before of what is involved in the -concept <i>God</i>, and so to pave the way for a consensus of thought on the -question.</p> - -<p>It will be observed that there is no idea of personality implicit in -this conception of God—God may or may not possess personality. It will -be for us later to investigate that particular aspect of the problem.</p> - -<p>It now remains to deal with the inner reality. Man has a wholly new -type of mind. He is social and capable of speech. He generalizes, and -he has a very highly developed power of association. This combination -gives him a great many possibilities<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> hitherto denied to life. In the -first place, he is able to order his experiences in a totally new way, -differing from the old very much as a classified card-index differs -from a rough diary-record of events. The organization of his mind is -elastic, capable of indefinite expansion and of specialization in any -direction.</p> - -<p>That being so, there will be always parts of his mind wholly or at -least partially undeveloped; and in any case the capacities which he -must employ in his everyday life, the region of his mind illuminated by -the attention needed in the struggle for existence, constitute but a -fraction of his mental self and its potentialities.</p> - -<p>This brings us on to one of the most important achievements of modern -psychology—the discovery and analysis of the subconscious. Impossible -here to go into detail; we must content ourselves with a few broad -statements. When we speak of the subconscious mind, we mean that in -man there exist processes which appear for many reasons to be of the -same nature as those of the normal mind (in that they are associated -with the same parts of the nervous system, fulfil the same general -biological functions, and probably operate through similar mechanisms), -with the single exception that we are not conscious of them as such.<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" >[50]</a></p> - -<p>The conscious mind, that which we think of as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> the basis of our mental -individuality, as our personal being, is the result of a long process -of organization. We come into the world with a set of instinctive and -emotional reactions only waiting their proper stimuli to be fired -off, with a capacity for learning, for amassing experience, and a -capacity for modifying our instincts and our behaviour according to our -experience. We incorporate experience in ourselves, and in so doing -we alter the original basis of our reactions; a strongly emotional -experience colours all that is closely associated with it; and so after -birth we are continually making our mental microcosm not only larger -but qualitatively more complex, in exactly the same way as before birth -our body grew not only in size, but also in complexity of organization.</p> - -<p>Parts of experience or of inherited tendencies may fail to become -organically connected with the main parts of our minds, simply because -attention has never been focussed on them, or has not attempted to -bring them into relation with the rest. They are, shall we say, like -bricks which might have been used in a building, but have been left -lying on the ground by the workmen.</p> - -<p>Still more remarkable are the methods by which harmony is achieved -in the personal mind. It is obvious that a conflict of any sort -between parts of the mind will waste energy, will prevent a clear-cut -reaction being given in either direction, and so constitute a grave -biological disadvantage by making us<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> fall between two stools. If a -child gets a serious fright in the dark, darkness will tend to arouse -fear. But darkness also comes with evening and with the time for -sleep. Two modes of reaction to darkness are therefore given, and they -are self-contradictory. One part of the mind comes down its pathway -towards action, and finds itself met by another which is coming along -the same path in the opposite direction. If neither moves, there is a -conflict; in our hypothetical case sleep is delayed; and if it comes, -is disturbed by nightmares—the echoes of the fright—and the childish -organism suffers.</p> - -<p>Exactly similar conflicts in which fear plays a part may occur in adult -life, e.g., in so-called “shell-shock”; or the sex-instinct may come -into conflict with other parts of the personality.</p> - -<p>These conflicts are resolved through one tendency or part of -experience being passed into the subconscious, where it no longer can -meet its opponent on the path to action. And this passage into the -subconscious can be apparently automatic, unwitting, when it is called -<i>suppression</i>, or performed only by voluntary effort, when it is called -<i>repression</i>. In the former case, it would appear that the conflict may -wholly or almost wholly cease; whereas in the second, the repressed -portion of mind is perpetually striving to come to the surface again, -and must thus perpetually be held down by force.</p> - -<p>If we hold by our metaphor of the building, then in suppression, -bricks which would not go well with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> the rest are stacked quietly in -the cellars; while in repression, part of the workmen want to build a -different sort of building, and have to be forcibly held down by some -of the rest to prevent their doing so.</p> - -<p>But in whatever way the subconscious may be organized it is always -with us, and there will always be a remainder of our soul, or of its -possibilities, which is not incorporated in our personal life at all, -as well as much which is not closely organized with the main everyday -personality, but is connected with it only by vague and loose bonds, -approachable only by narrow pathways instead of by broad roads.</p> - -<p>There is another process at work in the human mind which is of the -utmost importance for our problem. I mean the process of sublimation. -If it is not easy to give a short and clear definition of sublimation, -at least the process is familiar to all. The commonest example is -“falling in love,” where the simple sex-instinct becomes intertwined -with other instincts and with past emotional experience, and projects -itself in wholly new guise upon its object. We may perhaps best say -that a sublimated instinct has more and higher values attached to its -satisfaction than one unsublimated. The mere satisfaction of the sexual -impulse need be little more than a physiological desirability; but the -satisfaction of passionate love involves every fibre of the mental -organism, hopes and ideals converging with memories and instincts on to -the highest pitch of being. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span></p> - -<p>In such a case sublimation occurs with the normal object of the -instinct. But the elasticity of man’s mind permits of further -complication; the instinct may be not only sublimated but attached -to new objects. Through the cogs and spirals of the mind, the sexual -instinct may find an outlet at higher levels, and contribute to the -driving force of adventurous living, of art, or as we may see in many -mystics—St. Teresa for example—of religious ecstasy.</p> - -<p>It is as if a swift stream were falling into underground channels below -the mill of our being, where it could churn and roar away to waste. But -some of it is led off at a higher level, and we can learn to lead off -still more; and we can make an installation of pipes whereby it can be -taken up to the original level, and made to fall through new machines -and do any work we may ask of it.</p> - -<p>The mechanism of sublimation, however, deserves a few more words. -Recent work in biology has shown that in low forms of animals and in -early stages of high forms, the head-region is in a certain sense -dominant to the rest, in that it forms first and independently; but -that, once present, it exerts a formative influence upon the rest -of the body, keeping the various organs in some way under control, -making them different from what they would otherwise have been, and so -moulding them to the part of a single and higher whole.</p> - -<p>An extremely similar process is at work in sublimation. Ideas and -ideals can be naturally <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span>dominant over others, or they can become -dominant through becoming associated with primarily dominant ideas, or -by receiving a larger share of attention. Attention, concentration, -what you will, is one of the most remarkable mental functions. Not -only can the metaphor of intense illumination of a particular field be -justly used of it, but we may say that it seems to accelerate the flow -of mental process through a particular channel, and so to draw into -that channel the contents of other channels in connection with it, just -as a rapid flow of water through a pipe sucks in water from connected -pipes.</p> - -<p>As a result of this, sublimation involves not the suppression or -repression of instincts and emotional experiences, nor merely the -summation of them with another instinct, but their utilization as parts -of a new whole, of which the dominant instinct is like the controlling -head.</p> - -<p>When the sex-instinct is repressed, the emotional and religious life is -meagre, though often violent. When the sex-instinct and the religious -feeling exist side by side, without conflict but without union, you -have “the natural man” of St. Paul; but when the religious ideals are -dominant, and can catch up the sex-instinct into themselves, and in -so doing give it a new form and a new direction, then you get one of -the highest types of emotional lives. Or fear may be sublimated to -reverence; or sex again to art or to philanthropy.</p> - -<p>In every case, a new and more complicated mental<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> activity or organ -is arrived at; and the same process that we saw at work in biological -evolution—the creation of ever more complex units—is thereby -continued.</p> - -<p>Then we come to the fact that man displays disharmonies of mental -construction, together with an innate hankering after harmony. The -most obvious disharmony is that between the instincts that are -self-regarding and those that are other-regarding—between man’s -egotistic and his social tendencies.</p> - -<p>It appears that man became gregarious quite late in evolutionary -history. Through natural selection, sufficient “herd-instinct” was -developed to ensure that men would on the whole stand by the tribe in -danger, that the tribe should become a real biological unit. But it -was impossible wholly to harmonize these new social instincts, even -in the simplest societies, with the old, deeper-rooted, individualist -tendencies; and as life became more complex and choice wider, conflict -grew more and more frequent.<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" >[51]</a></p> - -<p>Another obvious disharmony in modern civilized communities is the -fact that sexual maturity occurs long before marriage is possible or -desirable.</p> - -<p>In all this, there is inevitably a field for all the various -combinations of suppression, or repression, or sublimation.</p> - -<p>Man’s gregariousness, together with his power of speech, learning, -and generalization, have led to the development of a new thing in the -world—persistent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> and cumulative tradition. I use tradition in the -broadest sense, as denoting all that owes its being to the mind of -man, and is handed down, by speech or imitation or in some permanent -record, from generation to generation. Language, general ideas of right -and wrong, convention, invention, national feeling—all this and much -more, constituting the more important part of the human individual’s -environment—is part of tradition; and tradition is pre-eminently and -inevitably social. However individualistic we may wish to be we cannot -escape modelling by this social environment.</p> - -<p>The general effect of man’s gregarious instinct is that he desires -to find himself in harmony with some traditions, with the ideas that -modern jargon likes to call the herd to which he belongs. The herd -ideas, the traditions, may be those of a nation or of a stratum within -the nation; of a whole class or of a clique; of science or of art; of -a retired monasticism, or of an all-embracing world-civilization. But -they are always herd ideas, and through them man is always member of -some community, even though that community be tiny, or consist mainly -of writers dead and gone; and he always strives to put himself in -harmony with the traditions of that community.</p> - -<p class="center">* * * * * * *</p> - -<p>A long-winded introduction enough; now for the bearing of it. One of -the essentials of every religion is its treatment of the subconscious, -is its view and its practice as regards the relation between the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span>personally-organized part of the mind to the remaining non-personal -reservoirs. At first the non-personal part is regarded as being wholly -outside the organism, and its occasional flooding up into the narrower -ego is regarded as an operation of an external personality, a spirit, a -God. Comparatively late, it is recognized as part of the organism, but -the process by which connection is made is still regarded as divine, -and called inspiration. Such ideas belong to the adolescence of the -race, in precisely the same way as the discovery and acquisition of -great tracts of this subconscious territory will always necessarily -constitute part of the adolescence of the individual. But any developed -religion must always in some way help to make these great reserves of -power accessible, always teach the enlargements of the personal ego -which their conquest brings about. This is one of the ways in which, to -use current religious phraseology, self may be lost, and found again on -a different plane.</p> - -<p>Religion must further always provide some internal harmony, in -counterpart to the harmony demanded in the unitary comprehension of -external reality. The various activities and experiences of life, -as they are originally given by heredity to the child, are either -independent, or else antagonistic and disharmonious. There must be some -means provided for bringing all of them into a true organization—in -other words into a whole which, though yet single, is composed of -co-operating parts. Here again the actual responses of actual religions -have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> been many and various; but they all operate by suppression, -repression, and sublimation, or by a combination of these.</p> - -<p>It can at once be said that sublimation is the right and highest way, -and that two of the criteria of religious progress are to be found -in the stress laid upon sublimation, and in the enlargement and the -elevation of the dominant ideas at work in the sublimating process. It -is the right and highest way because through it no spiritual energy is -wasted, and the age-long path of progress towards ever higher levels -of complexity in organization is still continued. Among religious -teachers, both Jesus and Paul laid great stress on this—on the -freedom, the emancipation from the shackles of an external law made -possible by the apprehension of some highest harmonizing principle -and the subordination of all other ideas and desires to it. Once one -can see and learn to follow such a principle, whatever one does is in -a sense right, because one’s desires are all subordinate to a desire -for right, and to something which is right. Perhaps it would be better -to say that they appear right to oneself, that the haunting, terrible -sense of sin is laid to rest, and one’s life liberated into free -activity, one’s energy made all available for achievement.</p> - -<p>The sense of sin, if not universal at one or other period of life, -is almost so, and comes from an apprehension of inner disharmony. As -one would expect, selfishness and sex are its most common roots; and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> -whenever it exists, then the necessary preliminary to any further -progress of one’s being is that it should be made to disappear. It -can disappear, as in St. Paul’s natural man, by a suppression of -part of the mind or of the connection between parts, or by a failure -to make certain connections, or it can be eradicated by a growth of -callousness; or—and I take it that this is the proper religious -solution—by discovering a clue which will harmonize the two apparently -opposed sections of experience, the two antagonistic tendencies, and so -resolve the problem with no loss of energy or of vital possibilities.</p> - -<p class="center">* * * * * * *</p> - -<p>Finally, there remains to be considered the mode in which the mind may -best organize the ideas of external reality given to it by its pure -cognitive and intellectual faculties.</p> - -<p>Even from the purely scientific point of view, generalization is -obviously of value. When we have found unity in the outer world’s -apparent diversity, direction in its apparent disorderliness, we -have obviously achieved a great gain. But religion appears to demand -something more. If for a moment we look at the matter pragmatically, -we shall find that a number of the great mystics (and a large majority -of those of our own occidental type and tradition) speak of their -experiences of “divine communion” as being communion with a <i>person</i>.</p> - -<p>What does this mean? We have seen that a purely intellectual analysis -gives us no handle for finding<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> personality in God. Can we suppose that -this direct intuition gives us that handle? To say so, to my mind, -would be simple obscurantism. Intuition, if it shows us reality, can -only show a reality capable in the long run of intellectual analysis; -to deny this is to deny all our premisses. No: their intuition shows -us that something akin to personality is perceived, but permits no -pronouncement as to whether its resemblance to personality is given in -its real nature, or introduced into it by their thought.</p> - -<p>If we look into the history of religion, we find over and over again -that man has taken something from his own mind and projected it into -the external world. The magic power of fetishes, the tabus incurred by -contact with certain objects, the endowment of the idea of external -powers, of God, with human form, the ascription of miraculous influence -to places or things—in every case there has been this projection. -And there is no reason to doubt that here again there has been a -similar occurrence, that man has organized his idea of external power -after the pattern of a personality, and has then ascribed this type -of organization to the external power itself. This projection Blake -symbolized in a sentence: “Thus men forgot that All Deities reside in -the Human breast.”</p> - -<p>The rival schools of psychology may disagree: but all are agreed that -some modes of thinking are more primitive than others, and even in the -most educated amongst us tend to persist, often in the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span>subconscious, -side by side with more developed methods that have arisen later.</p> - -<p>The use of concrete symbols or images is the most widespread of these -primitive modes of thought. It is natural that the more complex -should at the first be described in terms of the less complex, that -those experiences for which no proper terminology has been hammered -out should be given names out of man’s existing vocabulary. That is -inevitable: but there is an even more fundamental process at work. It -seems as if the human mind works, on its most primitive levels, by -means of image-formation, and that emotions and concepts for which -no simple image exist may call up symbolic images by association -and indeed often dress themselves in these new clothes before they -present themselves to consciousness. Some such process appears to take -place in dreams (including day-dreams!) and possibly in the ordinary -thought-processes of savages. More advanced modes of thought substitute -the currency of an arbitrary token such as a word or a formula for the -barter of images and concrete symbols; the freshness and vividness of -the image is lost, but more efficient and speedier working is attained. -However, in most of us the concrete image-using mode of thought is a -relief from the apparently less natural and more artificial (though -more efficient) operations of reason, and we relapse into it, wholly or -partially, more often than we realize.</p> - -<p>This unconscious irrational tendency to <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span>symbolism, together with the -other tendency to project ideas properly attaching to the subjective -world into external objects and processes—these between them account -for much of the modes of expression so far found for religious belief; -and, since the majority of human beings have a profound distaste for -sustained or difficult thought, it is likely that they will continue to -account for much in the future.</p> - -<p>These are facts of extreme importance. The professional sceptic is -at once tempted to exclaim that every such projection and illogical -symbolism is illusion through and through, and must be wholly swept -aside. He would be wrong. We each of us must know from our own -experience the “influence” (to use a general term) which may inhere -in certain things and places. True that the influence is of our own -mind’s making; but it is none the less real, not only as a momentary -existence, but, as the term implies, as exerting a definite and often -a great effect upon our lives. The lover who cherishes a ring or a -lock of hair; the man who is drawn back to the haunts of his childhood -or his youth; the mind refreshing itself with some loved poem or -picture;—what do we have in these and innumerable other instances but -a peculiarity of mind whereby it may take external objects into itself -and invest them with its own emotions and ideas, in such a way that -those same objects may later reflect their stored-up emotion back again -into the mind? It operates by a form of association; but the actual -working resembles<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span> the charging of a battery, which may subsequently -discharge back. We have in it, in fact, a special faculty which, if -rightly used, is of the greatest practical value. Further, the symbol, -if rightly used and rightly limited, is of service to most minds in -giving a more or less concrete cage for the winged, elusive, and -hardly-retained creatures of abstract thought.</p> - -<p>So too, the organization of the idea of God into a form resembling a -personality appears definitely to have, at least with the majority of -people belonging to what we call “Western civilization,” a real value.</p> - -<p>Biologically, the essence of real personality is first that it is -organized, and secondly that on each of its many faces it can, if I may -put it metaphorically, enter into action at a single point, but with -its whole content of energy available behind the point. In other words, -man as a personality can concentrate his mind on one particular problem -of one special aspect of reality; but he is able, if need be, to summon -up ever fresh reinforcements if he cannot carry the position—more -facts, other ways of thinking and feeling, memories, reserves of will. -In a properly organized personality, it is possible to bring the whole -to bear upon any single object.</p> - -<p>Now when the idea which man makes for himself of outer reality is -organized after the same general pattern as a personality, it too will -be able to act in this same sort of way.</p> - -<p>When man in perplexity interrogates the idea he has of external -reality, he is anxious to put his little<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span> individual self in harmonious -relation with the whole of reality that he knows. Therefore he should -organize that reality as a whole, and in such a way that it can all -be brought to bear through any single point. The relation between the -self and the idea of outer reality is, for any one problem, that of two -pyramids touching by their points only; but the points of contact can -shift as by miracle over their surfaces as the problem is changed.</p> - -<p>But another power of personalities is their power of interpenetration. -The purely material cannot do this. One portion of matter cannot -occupy the same space as a second portion. It is another of the -great differences between the psychozoic and all previous stages of -evolution, between man and all else that we know in the universe, -that the discrete units reached at this level of organization, the -individual human beings, can achieve interpenetration by means of their -minds. When you expound a new idea to me, and I grasp it, our minds -have obviously interpenetrated. This is a simple case; but there may be -an intimate union of mind with mind which is the basis of the highest -spiritual achievement and the greatest happiness. If mind and matter -are two properties of the same world-substance, then the rise of mind -to dominance has enabled this basic substance to escape from some of -the imprisoning limitations which confined it at lower levels of its -development; do we not all know that despair at being boxed up, that -craving for communion? Using our<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span> previous line of argument, we see -that the interpenetration of personalities is right, implies a further -step in progress, must be part of the basis on which future advance in -evolution is to build.</p> - -<p>But to apply this to our present point. By organizing our knowledge of -outer reality after the pattern of a personality, we make it possible -for it to interpenetrate our private personality. If, therefore, we -have, in any true sense of the word, “found religion,” it means that we -shall so have organized our minds that, for flashes at least, we attain -to a sense of interpenetration with the reality around us—that reality -which includes not only the celestial bodies, or the rocks and waters, -not only evolving life, but also other human beings, also ideas, also -ideals.</p> - -<p>This, to my mind, is what actually happens when men speak of communion -with God. It is a setting, an organizing of our experiences of the -universe in relation with the driving forces of our soul or mental -being, so that the two are united and harmonized. There is a resolution -of conflicts, an attainment of a profound serenity, a conviction that -the experience is of the utmost value and importance.</p> - -<p>Up till now, we have been defining and analysing: here we see religion -in operation. It is a relation of the personality as a unit to external -reality as a unit—and a relation of harmony. First, the inner -structure of the mind must be organized into a harmonious unit, then -our knowledge of outer reality organized similarly, and finally, in -religious <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span>experience, the two must be harmonized in interpenetrating -union.</p> - -<p>Once this harmony has been achieved, it is for one thing so precious -in itself that it will be sought for again; the knowledge that we have -once reached the stage at which difficulties and doubts are resolved in -what the philosophers would perhaps call a higher unity, but which I -should prefer to call an organic harmony, is always there to fall back -upon in times of discouragement; and finally the harmony is actually -woven into the tissue of our mind, just as the amazing physical harmony -revealed by physiology has, in the course of evolution, been woven into -the structure and working of living bodies; and it can remain there -as the dominant idea to which the rest of our ideas, and consequently -our actions, are brought into subordinate relation. In other words, -it becomes the dominant sublimating principle. Once more, however, -the subordination is not forced, but free—we find that what we once -thought obstacles are aids, what once seemed sin is now the willing and -efficient handmaid of good. That is the fundamental fact in all genuine -and valuable religious experience as such—the resolution of conflict -and the losing, or enlarging as you will, of the private personality, -the mere “self.” You will find this set out more fully, though in -different terminology, in Miss Underhill’s books on mysticism, or in -William James’s <i>Varieties of Religious Experience</i>, or in Thouless’s -<i>Psychology of Religion</i>. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span></p> - -<p>One side-issue. Such experience, if not absolute in the philosophical -sense, is absolute for us. If I may be Irish, its absoluteness is -relative to our organization and to reality as we perceive it. We -cannot perceive anything fuller, more absolute—until perhaps one day, -with the growth of our minds, we come to have some still richer and -more complete experience. As William James was so fond of reminding the -world, we have no right to assume that our minds are, much less that -they must be, the highest type of mind realized in the universe—no -more right than our domestic animals have, although our minds to them -could only be measured by their own standards.</p> - -<p>What is more, owing to our power of framing general concepts and -ideals, and of accumulating past and future in our present, we can -focus a vast deal to one point. In such experiences, whether they come -through religion, or love, or art, we may say that although we are but -a system of relations, we touch the Absolute—although we are mortal, -we mount to the Eternal for a moment. Only, to guard against error, we -must remember that it is obviously not in reality the Absolute or the -Eternal that we attain to, but only the nearest approximation to them -of which we are capable.</p> - -<p>We can therefore sum up this second part of our investigation by -saying that religion, to be more than mere ritual, must involve the -possibility of harmonizing the parts of the soul, of wiping out the -sense of sin, of sublimating instinct, of rendering the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span> subconscious -reservoirs of energy and being available for the personal self, and of -organizing the ideas of external reality into a single organized mental -whole—the idea of God—capable of reacting with the personal self by -interpenetration.</p> - -<p>Although he was moving to quite other conclusions, it is worth -recalling James’s ideas. For instance, “The line of least resistance -... is to accept the notion ... that there is a God, but that he is -finite.... These, I need hardly tell you, are the terms in which common -men have usually carried on their active commerce with God; and the -Monistic” [sc. Absolutist] “perfections that make the notion of him so -paradoxical practically and morally are the colder addition of remote -professorial minds operating <i>in distans</i> upon conceptual substitutes -for him alone.” (James,’09, p. 311.)</p> - -<p>I may perhaps be rebuked for trying to analyse the unanalysable, -for neglecting the supreme and sufficing fact of experience of God -in favour of the unprofitable and impossible task of catching the -infinite in an intellectual net. There are two answers to this. One -is that unanalysed experience is selfish because less communicable: -with that we deal later. The other is even more important: it is this. -Humanity at large is <i>not</i> content with emotional experience alone, -however complete and apparently satisfying: it has always demanded an -intellectual formulation of the reality with which it is in contact,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span> -as well as emotional experience of it, and so far as we can judge it -will always continue to do so.</p> - -<p>But it is further found, as matter again of general experience, that -such formulations do not remain innocuous in the vacuum of pure -intellect, but reverberate upon action and influence conduct. When -men believe that they are surrounded with magical powers, they spend -half their lives in ritual designed to affect the operations of these -(wholly hypothetical) influences. When they worship a God whom they -rationalize as man-like, they sacrifice a large proportion of their -produce on his altars, and may even kill their fellow-creatures to -placate his (again imaginary) passions. When they believe in a Divine -Revelation, they think that they possess complete enlightenment on -the great problems of life and death; and they will then cheerfully -burn those who differ from them, or embark upon the bloodiest wars in -defence of this imaginary certainty. When they worship God as absolute -and as a person, they cannot help making deductions that lead them -into absurdities of thought and of conduct: they deny or oppose ideas -derived from a study of nature, the only actual source of knowledge, -because they conflict with what they believe to be immutable truths, -but are in reality conclusions drawn from false premisses; they tend to -an acquiescent and obscurantist spirit in the belief that such moral -and intellectual laziness is “doing God’s will,” when that will is in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span> -reality their own personification of cosmic direction.</p> - -<p>Sooner or later, false thinking brings wrong conduct. Man can perhaps -get along with empirical methods and ideas which turn out on analysis -to be only symbols, provided that he does not attempt difficult -construction. He can have some sort of a religion, which will be some -sort of a help to him, even when its so-called certitudes are only -a collection of mixed metaphors, in the same way as he can practise -agriculture on a basis of mingled empiricism and superstition. But just -as he is finding that he is only able to raise agricultural efficiency -to its highest pitch by relying on the result of scientific method, as -when he uses synthetic nitrates instead of ploughing in a leguminous -crop, or just as a power-station would be very difficult to run if the -staff had only symbolic ideas on the nature of electricity no closer -to the real than is the symbolism of most religions, so if he does not -bring scientific analysis into the intellectual side of his religion, -he cannot realize religious possibilities. True that in a sense all -knowledge and intellectual presentation is symbolic: but there is the -world of difference between the merely analogical symbolism which takes -one idea or thing as symbolic of another because there is some degree -of similarity between the two and the first is more familiar, and the -scientific symbolism which strives to find a scientific counter, so -to speak, which shall represent particular phenomena as closely as -possible, and them alone.</p> - -<p>Not only this, but religion unillumined by reason<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span> degenerates into an -evil thing. Religion seems to be a natural activity and need of the -average human mind. But when its more primitive components are allowed -to dominate, when the instinctive and emotional in it are unchecked by -reflection and rational thought, then, as history too clearly shows -us, it becomes a cruel and obstructive power. To the fine mind of -Lucretius, the religion that he knew was the greatest enemy:—</p> - -<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div>“Quae caput a caeli regionibus ostendebat</div> -<div>Horribili super aspecta mortalibus instans.”</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>And he replies to the charge of impiety by pointing to the foul deeds -perpetrated by religion:</p> - -<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div class="i6">“—Quod contra saepius illa</div> -<div>Religio peparit scelerosa atque impia facta.”</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>Many another thinker and reformer has felt the same.</p> - -<p>There are those who, like Jung, believe that religion is an illusion -but also a necessity to the bulk of mankind, and therefore should be -encouraged. But the broader and truer view, I believe, is the one we -have adopted. We have seen that, in man, evolution has reached a new -plane, on which not only have new aims and values appeared, but the -possibility of new and better evolutionary methods has arisen. These -new methods are only possible, however, in so far as life, in man, uses -her new gifts. The progress of civilization is a constant conflict -between that part of man which he shares with the beasts and that part -which is his alone—between man as no more than a new kind of animal -and man<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> as a rational and spiritual being. In so far as religion -is irrational, it is no more than a dog baying the moon, no higher -activity than the nocturnal concerts of Howler monkeys, no more and no -less moral than the nobility of birds or beasts to a strangely-marked -or unusually-built member of their species, or the sense of being -a trespasser so often shown by a bird that has ventured upon the -nesting-territory of another. Recall the “Natural Religion” of Robert -Browning’s <i>Caliban</i>; on which plane did that grow? But when we have -discovered its real bases, and subordinated its impulsive promptings -to the control of reason and of the new, higher values in which reason -must always share—then it becomes an instrument for helping in the -conquest of the new regions which lie open to man as individual and as -species. And in this it resembles every other human activity without -exception.</p> - -<p>In religion the danger has always been that analogy and symbolism be -taken for more than they are—for scientific knowledge, or even for an -absolute certainty of some still higher order—and conclusions then -drawn from it. The conclusions follow with full syllogistic majesty: -but their feet are of clay—their premisses are false.</p> - -<p>If we find that this is the case to-day, we not only may but we -must endeavour to make our formulation correspond more closely with -reality, must not be content to take one thing in place of another, the -familiar for the unfamiliar, must set about <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span>destroying the old false -formulation for fear of the further harm that it will do by its hold -upon man’s incurable habit of drawing conclusions.</p> - -<p>Nor does this in any way interfere with or detract from the private and -unique experiences that in the long run <i>are</i> religion. They remain; -but they are thus hindered from becoming draped with delusion, from -leading their possessor into false courses.</p> - -<p>We may put it in another way. Too often in the past, religious -experience has been one-sided—one-or-other-sided instead of two-sided. -The intellectually-inclined, the theologians, frame more or less -adequate ideas of external reality, but fail in the majority of cases -to set their own house in order, to organize the inner reality to react -with the outer; they have theory without practice, are Dry-as-dusts. -On the other hand, the emotionally-minded who are gifted besides -with organizing and intuitive power, the mystics—they build up -their own souls into a desired and lovely edifice, in which too they -have constructed a spiritual machinery capable of viewing external -realities on a new plane, under a more highly synthesized aspect; but -they neglect the precise analysis of that outer reality, and so can -only speak in the barest symbols and metaphors, and cannot put their -hard-won knowledge into a form available for others. They have that -non-communicable skill which is that of the craftsman alone as opposed -to the craftsman who is also in some degree a scientist. We know good -mysticism from bad, as we know good<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> art from bad—as definitely and -as personally. And we are sure that good mysticism, like good art, is -somehow of supreme, transcendent importance; but almost always it has -remained like a purely symbolic art, not having for others the value -which it should have or did have for the mystic himself, because not -properly enchained, as the French say, with stern and immutable fact. -And of the theologian we feel that he gives us the grammar, not the -spirit, that he does not help us toward the supremely important act of -experiencing, but only to understanding experience if we chance to have -had it.</p> - -<p>One word on the problem of transcendence. The mystic will tell us that -transcendence is a hall-mark of religion at its highest. His mode of -experience transcends normal experience; things of everyday life become -surcharged with new, transcendent values; he has transcended from a -plane of disharmony to one of harmony. But the mystic is not alone in -this. Familiar examples are best examples: and the transcendence of -the lover’s experience is so familiar that all mankind is divided into -those who have it, those who long for it, and those who laugh at it. -But the great philosopher too must mediate between the transcendent and -mankind, and the true artist also, and the moralist worthy of the name.</p> - -<p>What goes under this technical name of transcendence, therefore, is the -product of some special psychological mechanism which may be at work -in the most diverse spheres. It we wish to substitute<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> one technical -phrase for another, we can say that it consists in the successful -attachment of what we have called absolute value to some human -activity, so as to make it for the time at least unitary, dominant, and -all-embracing. But psychologically speaking the genesis of “absolute -values” depends upon the generalizing of particular values; the raising -of them to the highest possible pitch; and the putting of them and -the rest of the mental organization into a relation in which they are -permanently or temporarily the dominating head and front, and are -connected with and gain strength and support from all the rest of the -mind.</p> - -<p>The problem of transcendence, in other words, is not one of divine -inspiration, of wholly mysterious experience, but one special case of -the problem of sublimation; and as such it is to be investigated by -psychological science, to be understood, to be democratized, to be made -more available to all who wish for it.</p> - -<p>The most ardent enemies of traditional religion have often professed -the most transcendental type of morality. Some men are pragmatic -and utilitarian in regard to Truth; by others she is worshipped as -fanatically as any goddess. So some men deliberately make <i>mariages -de convenance</i>; to others, the transcendence of their love is such -that they precipitate themselves into what can only be described as -<i>mariages d’inconvenance</i>.</p> - -<p>I have dilated upon this at some length, because<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> those whom we may -call the religious writers on religion so often lay such stress on this -question of transcendence and its special value and importance. But you -do not—in the long run at least—make a thing more important by giving -it an imposing title; you only give it a false exclusiveness.</p> - -<p>Transcendence is the experimental side of what we have been describing -all along: it is the finding of unity in diversity, the synthesis -of discord in harmony and in especial the finding of something of -supreme value (and therefore dominant) which can be linked up with the -whole extent of our mental being. Transcendence in religion differs -from transcendence in art or love only in its objects. In love the -discrepancy between the object and the ideal values hung round it is -often so glaring as to provoke laughter from cynics, compassion from -the rest. In art, the operations by which an artist turns a collection -of mean and commonplace objects into a beautiful and single whole, -a poet invests failure and death with authentic tragedy, or drags -every-day to a seat in eternity, are just as transcendent as that by -which the mystic converts the relation between the warring passions -of his soul and the infinite catalogue of differences which he finds -around him into what he can only speak of as a divine communion, -all-satisfying in itself, all-important for the conduct of his life. -Science can here help religion by analysing and interpreting phenomena -such as transcendence, paring the false from the true, cutting down -false claims,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> substituting the hopefulness of natural causation for -the illogical vagaries of supernaturalism and incommunicability.</p> - -<p class="center">* * * * * * *</p> - -<p>I may perhaps be allowed to close with a few more practical aspects of -the problem.</p> - -<p>Many religious ideas and practices, as man’s thought clarified -itself, have proved to be unserviceable, and have been thrown on the -lumber-heap, or left only with the losers in the race. It is impossible -for any educated man nowadays to believe in the efficacy of magic, -or of animal sacrifice; to accept the first chapter of Genesis as -literally true; or to believe that God has human parts and passions. -But there was a time when all these could be, and were, believed.</p> - -<p>The time is obviously coming when a great many other ideas must be cast -aside in favour of new ones. If you have followed me, you will agree -that it is impossible for me and those who think like me to believe in -God as a person, a ruler, to continue to speak of God as a spiritual -<i>Being</i> in the ordinary way. Consequently, although the value of prayer -persists in so far as it is meditative and a self-purification of -the mind, yet its commonly accepted petitive value must fall to the -ground;<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" >[52]</a> so must all idea of miracle and of direct inspiration; -so must all that is involved in the ordinary materialist ideas of -ritual, self-denial, and worship as merely propitiation or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span> “acceptable -incense”; so must all the externally-projected parts of the ideas -concerning the ordaining of special priests; so must all notion of -our having a complete, peculiar, or absolute knowledge of God, or of -there being a divinely-appointed rule of conduct or a divinely-revealed -belief.</p> - -<p>On such matters, most advanced thinkers have been long in general -agreement. But there is one very important point which, so far as I -know, has been very little touched upon—chiefly, I think, because such -radical thinkers have been for the most part destructive, and so have -not envisaged this particular side of the question.</p> - -<p>I hope I have been able to convince you that the scientific manner of -thinking can lay the foundation for something constructive in religion: -this great problem, however, remains: what sort of form or organization -shall any such new-moulded religion take on itself?</p> - -<p>We have just decided that fixed and rigid dogma is impossible, and that -completeness is out of the question. Yet humanity craves for certainty -and is not content to leave any factor out of the scheme of things.</p> - -<p>To this we answer that it is here that real faith enters. We cannot -know the absolute, nor have we discovered a goal for our efforts. But -we have discovered a unity embracing all that we know, and a direction -starting at the first moment to which our reconstructive thought can -penetrate, continuing till<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span> to-day, and showing an acceleration of -speed on which we may raise our hopes for the future.</p> - -<p>We do not know all. For instance, I have studiously avoided ever -mentioning the word <i>immortality</i>, since I believe that Science cannot -yet profitably discuss that question. But the discovery of unity in all -that has so far been studied gives us reasonable faith that its wings -will reach out to cover all that we shall still be enabled to learn, -while the unbroken continuity of evolutionary direction gives us the -same sort of right to believe that it will continue to-morrow and on -into time as we have to believe that apples will continue to fall to -the earth.</p> - -<p>The study of evolution may give us a further help. We have seen how the -final steps of the highest forms of animals have been in the direction -of plasticity of organization: we see it in the rise of man from -mammals, in higher as against more primitive levels of human culture, -in great men as against ordinary men. There can be no doubt that its -acquisition constitutes a step in evolutionary progress. Plasticity is -needed in any new religion. And plasticity means tolerance, means the -reduction of fixity of ritual, of convention, of dogma, of clericalism.</p> - -<p>It is clear that, as complexity increases, need will be felt for a -finer adjustment of satisfaction to mood, a more delicate adaptation of -religion to the individual. A few types of ceremony satisfied primitive -races: an elaborate system, fixed in essence, fluctuating in detail, -has grown up in modern Christianity.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span> But the more complex the mind, -the less does it like to have to “wait till Sunday”—the less is it -satisfied with the solely biblical point of view, or the literary and -musical level of Hymns A. and M.</p> - -<p>The less also is it satisfied with the mediation of a priest. -Priest (or Priest-King) is sole mediator in most savage tribes: his -mediation is enormously important in the Roman Catholic Church: less -so in Protestant Churches: until with the progressive raising of the -spiritual and cultural level, it is perhaps possible that he may become -an obstacle instead of a help. Mediators there must always be. They are -the great ones—prophets and poets, heroes, philosophers, musicians, -artists, and all who discover or interpret or display what for the -ordinary man is hidden or difficult or rare. They mediate between the -utmost attainable by man and man in the lump. As Hegel says of one -group of these mediators, the artists, it is the function of their -art to deliver to the domain of feeling and delight of vision all -that the mind may possess of essential and transcendent Being. But, -with the spread of invention and the change of civilization, their -mediations are becoming more and more readily accessible to all. I -can get, on the whole, more satisfactory mediation from three or four -feet of properly filled bookshelf than from a dozen priests. Milton -will give me doctrine if I want it, but stupendously: Wordsworth will -reveal nature: Shakespeare the hearts of men: Blake can put men into -a mystical, Shelley into an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span> intellectual ecstasy, while Keats and a -dozen others can open universal doors of beauty. What is more, if I -have had the mediation of wise parents and good teachers, or to be so -fortunate as to be enthusiastic, I find that in many things I can be -my own mediator, in the same way as the Protestant found that he could -read his Bible and eat the holy bread and wine for himself as well or -better than the priest could do it for him.</p> - -<p>Whatever we may say or like, it is an obvious fact that much of what -is essential in religious experience, which in a simpler society was -only attainable in prayer and sacrifice, communal ceremony or ritual -worship, is now attainable to an increasing degree through literature, -music, drama, art, and is, again, as a matter of fact, so attained by -an increasing number of people who do not profess a creed or belong -to a church. So that, as regards the personal, individual side of -religion, many of the functions of Churches will inevitably be better -performed through direct contact between the individual and the -mediator—philosopher, poet, artist, or whatever he be—who provides -the experience.</p> - -<p>There remains public worship and community-religion. It is clear that -whereas a Church in the Middle Ages was not only Church but also Museum -of curiosities, Art-gallery and Theatre, and in large measure also took -the place of our press and public libraries, now it is none of these -things. There is now less reason for public worship, fewer functions<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> -for it to perform. On the other hand a religion is essentially in one -aspect social, and not only does the unity of nature demand a unity of -religion, but such unity of religion would be of the highest importance -as a bond of civilization and a guarantee of the federalist as against -the solely nationalist ideal. Moreover, to many types of mind, and to -almost all men in certain circumstances, the partaking in a public -religious ceremony in common with others is of real importance. It is -safe to say, therefore, that these ceremonies will continue, however -much modified, and that for them a mediator or priest, even if but -temporarily acting as such, will be needed. The problem is largely -that of combining in public worship the religious effectiveness of the -simple, the hallowed, and the universally familiar—such as inheres in -many of the prayers, psalms, and hymns of the Church to-day—with the -spontaneity and immediacy which, for instance, are to be found at a -devotional meeting of the Society of Friends.</p> - -<p>In any case, the new intellectual premisses once granted, the -limitations imposed on human mind once understood, the important thing -is to give a greater vigour and reality to religious experience itself, -whether personal and private or social and public. It is just here that -Science may help, where knowledge may be power. Atonement, conversion, -sense of grace, ecstasy, prayer, sacrifice—the meaning and value of -these and of other religious acts and experiences can be put on a -proper psychological basis,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span> they can be shorn of excrescences, and -their practice take its place in normal spiritual development. That -is of the essence of any religion rooted in scientific ideas—that -comprehension should make practice easier and better worth while.</p> - -<p>I am only too painfully aware of the omissions which such a cursory -treatment of the subject inevitably involves. I have given you, I know, -little but dry bones; but bones are the framework necessary before -impatient life can animate a new form. If Science can construct that -form, the emotions and hopes and energies of humanity will vivify and -clothe it. It is with the aid of such intellectual scaffolding that the -common mind of humanity in the future, inevitably rooted in scientific -conceptions as it will be, must try to raise that much-desired -building, a religion common to all.</p> - -<p>In any case, I shall be more than content if I have been able to -persuade you first that the term God, just as much as the terms -Energy, say, or Justice, has a real meaning and scientifically-based -sense. Second, that the idea of God has and will continue to have an -important biological function in man as denoting an idea, organized -in a particular way, of the whole of the reality with which he is -in contact. Thirdly, that the physical and biological sciences, in -discovering the unity of matter and energy, and the direction operating -in cosmic evolution, have provided a real basis for what up till now -have been only theological speculations. Fourthly, that <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span>psychological -science, in revealing some of the mechanism of mind, is helping us to -appreciate the value of so-called mystical experience, is laying a -foundation for the proper spiritual training and development of human -mind, and shows us how the idea of God may be efficacious as a dominant -idea in the all-important process of sublimation. And finally that, -since the scientific mode of thought is of general and not merely local -or temporary validity, to build a religion on its basis is to make it -possible for that religion to acquire a stability, a universality, and -a practical value hitherto unattained.</p> - -<p>We are yet at the very beginning of that task, but I cannot close -better than by reminding you of another biological fact of importance, -that from all analogy the human species is yet near the beginning of -its evolutionary career, and that man has before him vast tracts of -time to set against the vastness of his tasks.</p> - -<p>A chapter in the history of Earth closed with the appearance of Man. -In man, the <i>Weltstoff</i> had been made able to think and feel, to love -beauty and truth—the cosmos had generated soul. A new chapter then -began, a chapter in which we all are characters. Matter had flowered in -soul. Soul has now to mould matter.</p> - -<p>That moulding of matter by spirit is, under one aspect, Science; under -another, Art; under still another, Religion. Let us be careful not to -allow the moulding forces to counteract each other when they might be -made to co-operate.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span></p> - -<h3>BIBLIOGRAPHY</h3> - -<blockquote><p>Arnold, M., ’73, ’75. “Literature and Dogma”; and “God and the -Bible.” London, 1873 and 1875.</p> - -<p>Baudouin, C., ’20. “Suggestion and Auto-Suggestion.” London, 1920.</p> - -<p>Bergson, H., ’11. “Creative Evolution.” London, 1911.</p> - -<p>Boutroux, E., ’12. “Science and Religion in Contemporary -Philosophy.” London, 1912.</p> - -<p>Brown, W., ’22. “Psychology and Psychotherapy.” London, 1922.</p> - -<p>Buckland, ’37. “Geology and Mineralogy considered with reference -to Natural Theology.” London, 1837.</p> - -<p>Crawley, ’02. “The Mystic Rose.” London, 1902.</p> - -<p>Danysz, J., ’21. “La Genèse de l’Energie Psychique.” Paris, 1921.</p> - -<p>Flaubert, G. “La Tentation de St. Antoine.”</p> - -<p>Frazer, J. “The Golden Bough.” 3 vols.</p> - -<p>Freud, S., ’13. “The Interpretation of Dreams.” London, 1913. ’14. -“Psychopathology of Everyday Life.” London, 1914.</p> - -<p>Haldane, J. S., ’21. “Mechanism, Life, and Personality.” London, -1921.</p> - -<p>Harrison, Jane, ’09. “The Influence of Darwin on the Study of -Religions.” In Seward, ’09, q. v.</p> - -<p>Huxley, T. H. “Evolution and Ethics. Collected Essays.” Vol. 9. -London, 1906.</p> - -<p>James, W., ’02. “Varieties of Religious Experience.” London, 1902.</p> - -<p>—— —— ’09. “A Pluralistic Universe.” London, 1909.</p> - -<p>Jevons, ’10. “The Idea of God in Early Religions.” Cambridge, -1910. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span></p> - -<p>Johnstone, J., ’21. “The Mechanism of Life.” London, 1921.</p> - -<p>Jung, C. G., ’18 and ’20. “Psychology of the Unconscious.” London, -1918; “Analytical Psychology.” London, 1920.</p> - -<p>Lloyd-Morgan, ’23. “Emergent Evolution.” London, 1923.</p> - -<p>Lull, R. S., ’17. “Organic Evolution.” New York, 1917.</p> - -<p>M’Dougall, W., ’16. “Social Psychology” (10th Ed.). London, 1916.</p> - -<p>Nicoll, ’20. <i>In</i> “Functional Nerve Disease” (Ed. H. Crichton -Miller). Oxford, 1920.</p> - -<p>Prince, M., ’06. “The Dissociation of a Personality.” New York, -1906.</p> - -<p>—— —— ’16. “The Unconscious.” New York, 1916.</p> - -<p>Reinach, S., ’09. “Orpheus; a General History of Religions.” -London, 1909.</p> - -<p>Rivers, W. H., ’20. “Instinct and the Unconscious.” Cambridge, -1920.</p> - -<p>Russell, Bertrand, ’17. “A Free Man’s Worship,” <i>in</i> “Principles -of Social Reconstruction.” London, 1917.</p> - -<p>Seward, A. C. (ed.), ’09. “Darwin and Modern Science.” Cambridge, -1909.</p> - -<p>Thouless, ’23. “Introduction to the Psychology of Religion.” -Cambridge, 1923.</p> - -<p>Trotter, W., ’19. “Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War” (2nd -Ed.). London, 1919.</p> - -<p>Turner, A. C, ’16. <i>In</i> “Concerning Prayer.” By the author of “Pro -Christo et Ecclesia” and Others. London, 1916.</p> - -<p>Underhill, E., ’20. “Essentials of Mysticism.” London, 1920.</p> - -<p>Webb, C. C. J., ’18. “God and Personality.” London, 1918.</p> - -<p>Wells, H. G., ’17. “God the Invisible King.” London, 1917.</p></blockquote> - -<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> - -<p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44">[44]</a> W. James, ’09, p. 21.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45">[45]</a> See Danysz, ’21.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46">[46]</a> See Danysz, ’21.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47">[47]</a> See Haldane, ’21; Thouless, ’23.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48">[48]</a> A confusion of thought easily arises here. It may be -absolutely true that 2 and 2 make 4; we may be absolutely right in -certain cases to tell a lie; or may find an expression of absolute -beauty in some one lovely thing. But we may grow to find that same -thing aesthetically unsatisfying; we can imagine a state of society -in which it would never be right to lie; while our correct knowledge -of elementary arithmetic is something very partial and incomplete -considered in relation to mathematical truth as a whole.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49">[49]</a> It is interesting to note that a scientific treatment -of the problem may force an author almost unwittingly to similar -conclusions. For instance, in Jevons’ book (’10) the term “God” hardly -occurs at all, whereas the phrase “the idea of God” is to be found on -nearly every page. If, as we are urging, God as efficient agent in the -world and as reality in contact with human beings <i>is</i> outer world -organized as idea, the reason for such periphrasis at once appears.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50">[50]</a> See Prince, ’06 and ’16; Freud, ’22; Jung, ’19; Rivers, -’20; Brown, ’22.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51">[51]</a> See Trotter, ’19.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52">[52]</a> See Turner, ’16.</p> - -<p> </p> -<p> </p> -<hr /> -<p> </p> -<p> </p> - -<div class="mynote"><p class="center">Transcriber’s Note:<br /><br /> -Obvious typographic errors have been corrected.<br /></p></div> - - -<p> </p> -<p> </p> -<hr class="pgx" /> -<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ESSAYS OF A BIOLOGIST***</p> -<p>******* This file should be named 65145-h.htm or 65145-h.zip *******</p> -<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> -<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/6/5/1/4/65145">http://www.gutenberg.org/6/5/1/4/65145</a></p> -<p> -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed.</p> - -<p>Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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