Next, I suppose, was introduced sexual selection, or contest among the males, by battle or by display, for possession of the females, and the success of the strongest or the most attractive; and the perpetuation and increase of these superior qualities of strength and beauty in the next generation. This, I suppose, was later, because connected with a higher development of the psychical nature. This is especially true where splendor of color or beauty of song determines the selection. As might be supposed, therefore, this factor is operative only among the highest animals, especially birds and mammals.[18]
Next and last, and only with the appearance of Man, another entirely different and far higher factor was introduced, viz., conscious, voluntary co-operation in the work of his own evolution—a conscious, voluntary striving to attain an ideal. We have called this a factor, but it is much more than a mere factor, co-ordinate with other factors. It is, rather, a different kind of evolution. It is evolution on a higher plane and by another nature. As physical Nature works unconsciously, using certain factors, so spiritual nature works consciously, co-operating and using the same factors. At first this factor, if we still call it so, was extremely feeble. In the early stages of his progress, man, like other animals, was largely urged on by forces of organic evolution, unknowing and uncaring whither he tended. But more and more, as civilization advances, this higher and distinctively human factor becomes more and more dominant, until now, in civilized communities, it takes control of evolution. Reason, instead of Nature, now assumes control, though still using the methods and factors of Nature. This free, self-determined evolution of the race, in order to distinguish it from the necessary evolution of the organic kingdom, we call progress.
Now, in this whole process we observe two striking stages. The one is the introduction of sex, the other is the introduction of reason.[19] They may be compared to two equally striking stages in the development of the individual. As the ontogenic evolution receives fresh impulse at the moment of fertilization, so the evolution of the organic kingdom receives fresh impulse at the moment of introduction of sex. As in ontogenic evolution the individual at birth enters upon a new and higher plane, in which it co-operates in its own physical growth, so the organic kingdom, with the introduction of man, enters upon a new and higher plane, in which man co-operates in the physical and spiritual growth of the race. With sex three new and higher factors were introduced, and these immediately assumed control and quickened the rate of evolution. With reason another and infinitely higher factor is introduced, which, in its turn, assumes control, and not only again quickens the rate, but elevates the whole plane of evolution. Moreover, this voluntary, rational factor not only takes control itself, but transforms all other factors and uses them in a new way and for its own higher purposes.
This last is by far the greatest change which has ever occurred in the history of evolution. In organic evolution Nature operates by necessary law without the conscious voluntary co-operation of the thing evolving. In human progress man voluntarily co-operates with Nature in the work of evolution, and even assumes to take the process mainly into his own hands. Organic evolution is by necessary law, human progress by free or at least by freer law. Organic evolution is by a pushing upward and onward from below and behind, human progress by a drawing upward and onward from above and in front by the attractive force of ideals. In a word, organic evolution is by the law of force, human evolution by the law of love.
It may be well to stop a moment and show briefly some of the differences between organic and human evolution—differences which are, of course, wholly the result of the introduction of this new factor:
1. In organic evolution “the fittest” are those most in harmony with the physical environment, and therefore they survive. In human evolution the fittest are those most in harmony with the ideal, and often, especially in the early stages, when the race is still largely under the dominion of organic factors, they do not survive, because not in harmony with the social environment. But, although the fittest individuals may indeed perish, the ideal survives in the race and will eventually triumph.
2. In organic evolution the weak, the sick, the helpless, the unfit in any way perish and ought to perish, because this is the most efficient way of strengthening the blood or physical nature of the species, and thus of carrying forward evolution. In human evolution the weak, the helpless, the sick, the old, the unfit in any way are sustained and ought to be sustained, because sympathy, love, pity, strengthen the spirit or moral nature of the race. But let us remember that in this material world of ours and during this earthly life the spirit or moral nature is conditioned on the physical nature; and, therefore, in all our attempts to help the weak we must be careful to avoid poisoning the blood and weakening the physical vigor of the race by inheritance. This gravest of social problems, viz., How shall we obey the higher law of love and mutual help without weakening the blood of the race by inheritance and the spirit of the race by removing the necessity of self-help?—this problem, I believe, can and will be solved by a rational education, physical, mental, and moral. I only allude to this. It is too wide a field to follow up here.
3. In organic evolution the bodily form and structure must continually change in order to keep in harmony with the ever-changing environment. In other words, organic evolution is by continual change of species, genera, families, etc. There must be continual evolution of new forms by modification. In human evolution, on the contrary, and more and more as civilization advances, man modifies the environment so as to bring it into harmony with himself and his wants, and therefore there is no necessity of change of bodily form and structure or making of new species of man. Human evolution is not by modification of form—new species; but by modification of spirit—new planes of activity, higher character. And the spirit is modified and character elevated, not by pressure of an external physical environment, but by the attractive force of an internal spiritual ideal.
4. The way of evolution toward the highest—i. e., from protozoan to man and from lowest man to the ideal, the divine man—is a very straight and narrow way, and few there be that find it. In the case of organic evolution it is so straight and so narrow that any divergence therefrom is fatal to upward movement toward man. Once get off the track, and it is impossible to get on again. No living form of animal is on its way manward, or can by any possibility develop into man. They are all gone out of the way. There is none going right; no, not one. The organic kingdom developing through all geological times may be compared to a tree whose trunk is deeply buried in the lowest strata, whose great limbs were separated in early geological times, whose secondary branches diverged in middle geological times, and whose extreme twiglets, and also its graceful foliage, its beautiful flowers, and luscious fruits, are the fauna and flora of the present day. But this tree of evolution is an excurrent stem, continuous through the clustering branches to the terminal shoot—man. Once leave the stem as a branch, and it is easy to continue growing in the direction chosen, but impossible to get back on the straight upward way to the highest. In human evolution, whether individual or racial, the same law holds, but with a difference. If individual or race gets off the straight, narrow way toward the highest—the divine ideal—it is hard, very hard to get back on the track. Hard, I say, but not impossible, because man’s conscious voluntary effort is the chief factor in his own evolution. By virtue of self-activity, through the use of reason and co-operation in the work of evolution, man alone of all created things is able to rectify an error of direction and return again to the deserted way.
5. In organic evolution, when a higher factor appears, it immediately assumes control, and previous lower factors sink into a subordinate position, though still underlying and conditioning the higher. But in human evolution, the higher rational factor, when it comes in with man, not only assumes control, but transforms all other factors and uses them in a new way and for its own higher purposes. In fact, as already said, it is much more than a mere factor. It determines a new kind of evolution—evolution on a new and higher plane though, indeed, underlaid and conditioned by the laws of organic evolution. As external physical Nature uses many factors to carry forward organic evolution, so the internal spiritual nature, characteristic of man alone, uses these same factors in a new way to carry forward human evolution or progress. Thus, for example, one organic factor—the environment—is modified or even totally changed so as to effect suitably the human organism. This is hygiene. Again, use and disuse—another factor—is similarly transformed. The various organs of the body and faculties of the mind are deliberately used in such wise and degree (determined by reason) as to produce the highest efficiency of each part and the greatest strength and beauty of the whole. This is education—physical, mental, moral. So also the selective factors are similarly transformed, and natural selection becomes rational selection. We all know how this method is applied to domestic animals and cultivated plants in the formation of useful or beautiful varieties. Why should it not be applied also to the improvement of our race in the selection of our mates in marriage, or in the selection of our teachers, our law-makers, our rulers? Alas! how little even yet does reason control our selection in these matters! How largely are we yet under the law of organic evolution!