The Conservative *
system before birth. The auiinnl thus
organized takes care of himself as soon
as he begins to live. Ho has nothing to
learn. His career is like that of his
coxiutless ancestors. With the animal ,
heredity is everything. Experience ,
knowledge in consciousness nothing.
Ascending the scale of animal life a
remarkable change begins among the
higher birds and mammals. With the
general increase of intelligence comes an
increase in variety and complexity of
experience. The acts which the animal
performs become more numerous , var
ious and complex. They are therefore
repeated less frequently in the life time
of each individual. In other words , the
individual is likely to do some things
many things different from his ances
tors ; things determined , in a way , by
his experience , judgment , choice , will.
Consequently the tendency to perform
these is not completely organized in the
nervous system before birth. The short
period of ante-natal existence is not
enough to afford him the organization of
so many and such complicated habitudes
and capacities.
The process , which in the lower ani
mals is completed before birth , is com
pleted in the higher animals after birth.
The higher animal begins life before it
is completely organized. Instead of
starting with the power of doing all the
things its ancestors and parents did , it
begins by doing only a few of them.
For doing the rest of what its parents
and ancestors did and for going beyond
the deeds of ancestors and parents as is
done in the case of man it has only
latent capacities which are to be devel
oped by its experience after birth. The
higher animal begins its life not as a
mature creature but as an infant , to be
nursed , watched , and helped.
The appearance of infancy in the ani
mal world was the beginning of man's
creation and the dawn of the new era.
With infancy came the first dawning
of the conscious life of human beings.
There came also another thing of
equally transcendent importance the
beginning of feelings and actions on the
part of parents that were not purely
eijoislic or selfish. The dawn of altru
istic feelings began. Parents began to
find their lives in the lives of others.
The psychical development of human
ity in the line of disinterested feelings
has been and still is due largely to the
re-action of individuals on one another
in the various relations called social.
In tracing the origin of man , science
has at the same time traced the origin
of society.
The social relations are as much a
part of one's self as are his psychical
capacities. In fact one's social relations
are a large and important part of the
empirical self.
Foreshadowiugs of the human social
relations occur in the animal world.
Many classes of vertebrate animals are
gregarious , / . e. , have the social instinct.
The terms , a herd of cattle , a drove of
horses , a flock of sheep , a school of fish ,
are examples. More remote from man
are the insects ; but a swarm of bees in
dicates the social instinct an uncon
scious urgency to a certain end. And
of those animals which isolate them
selves the reason seems to be their ne
cessity for protection or food.
Not only the foreshadowiugs of the
social relations among mankind appear
in the animal world , but also rudimen
tary moral sentiments appear among the
higher mammalian orders and in all but
the lowest members of our own order.
But while this is so , it is to be noted
that the dcjinitencss and permanency of
the relations of the gregarious state are
far below the relations between the in
dividuals in the rudest human society.
The primary unit of human society is
the family. Man is raised out of a state
of gregarious apehood by the establish
ment of definite and permanent family
relations.
The genesis of the family is thus seen
to arise from the conditions of infancy
an immature , unformed , incomplete ,
helpless condition on the one hand and
the accompanying fact of altruistic , un
selfish feelings on the part of the parents
on the other hand ; and then the fixing
of definite and permanent relations be
tween those who hold the relation of
parenthood.
Tliis great point the establishing of
the family was attained through that
lengthening of helpless childhood which
accompanied the gradual increasing in
telligence of our half-human ancestors.
When several children were born to
the same parents , and the period of
childhood which the parents had to sup
ervise was lengthened , the relations of
husband and wife , father and mother ,
brother and sister , must have become
firmly knit , and the first social unit was
formed. With this genesis of the fam
ily the creation of man , in a sense , was
completed.
He had a physical and a social birth.
But , in a sense , his birth into the
family is only the first stage of his social
birth. He is yet to be born into other
institutions before his creation is com
plete.
But this wonderful process of develop
ment , says the evolutionist , began
millions of ages ago when natural
selection came to confine itself to psy
chical variations and the comparative
neglect of physical variations.
The creation of man was not the
creation of a "perfect being , but of an
improvable being. Since his appearance
on the earth the changes that have gone
on in man , psychically , are enormous.
So great are they that the interval be
tween the highest and the lowest man
far surpasses quantitatively the interval
between the lowest man and the highest
ape.
ape.Says John Fisko , one of the most
luminous expositors of the theory of
evolution : "If wo take into account the
creasing of the cerebral surface the
difference between the brain of a Shake
speare and that of an Australian savage
would doubtless be fifty times greater
than the difference between the Austral
ian and that of the Orang Outang.
In mathematical capacity the Austral
ian , who cannot tell the number of
fingers on his two hands , is much nearer
to a wolf or a lion than to Sir Rowan
Hamilton who invented the method of
quartornions.
In moral development this same
Australian , whose language contains no
words for justice and benevolence , is
less remote from dogs and baboons than
from a Howard and a Garrison. The
Australian is more teachable than the
ape , but his limit is quickly reached.
All the distinctive attributes of man
have been enormously developed through
long ages of social evolution.
This psychical development of man is
the line of his progress and is destined
to go on in the future as in the past. "
The "Creative Energy" of the evolu
tionist , the "Nous" of Aristotle , the
"Idea" of Plato , the "Word" of Saint
John , the "Absolute Reason" of Hegel ,
the "Divine Spirit" of the Bible , the
"God" of the Christian World , which
has been active through the bygone
ages and whoso essence is activity are
not going out of business and become
quiescent , dead , tomorrow.
This would be the negation of all ex
istence the collapse of the universe.
Science has learned a little of the
methods of working of the absolute
reason and from observation of the past
we can foresee somewhat of the future.
We need to hold on to the fact that
the beginning of infancy in the animal
world was the condition which called
into existence the altruistic feelings.
The rudimentary form of this feeling
was the transient affection of a female
bird or mammal for its young.
This feeling was first given direction
through the genesis of the primitive
family. It has formed an important
part of the progress of civilization ; but
it has not kept pace with the develop
ment of intelligence. Morality has not
kept pace with knowledge , or justice
and kindness have not run parallel with
quick-wittedness. The reason for this
is that man's advancement in civiliza
tion has been made through fighting.
Through the deadly struggle of com
petition which has been going on ever
since organic life began on earth ,
through fierce and perpetual struggle ,
the higher forms of life have been grad
ually evolved by natural selection.
The evolution of man was the opening
of an entirely new chapter in the history
of the earth. It no respect was it newer
than in the genesis of the altruistic
feelings.
But that only the higher altruistic
feelings ( involving justice and equity in
all social relations ) have nut kept pace