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 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 an aspiration, an attraction toward an ideal—a pulling upward and onward from above and in front.
This great change may well be likened to a birth.[70] Spirit or Reason or the Psyche—call it what you like—was in embryo in animals in increasing degrees of development through all geological times and came to birth and capacity of free activity, became free spirit investigating its own phenomena in man. In animals the evolution of Psyche was the unconscious result of organic evolution. In man the Psyche is born into a new world of freer activity and undertakes to develop itself.
[70] See Evolution and its Relation to Religious Thought, Part iii. Chap. iv, where the writer's views are more fully brought out.
It may be well to stop a moment and show briefly some of the striking differences between organic and human evolution, differences resulting wholly from the introduction of this new factor, or rather this evolution on a new and higher plane.
(1) In organic evolution the fittest are those most in harmony with the 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 of evolution, during the dominance of natural selection, they do not survive because not in harmony with the social environment.
(2) In organic evolution the weak, 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. In human evolution the weak, the helpless, the physically unfit, are sustained, and ought to be sustained, because sympathy, love, pity strengthens the spirit or moral nature. But the spirit or moral nature is also sustained by, and conditioned on, the physical nature. In all our attempts therefore to help the weak we must be careful that we avoid poisoning the blood and weakening the physical health of the race. This we believe can and will be done by rational education, physical, mental, and moral. We only allude to this. It is too wide a subject to follow up here.
(3) In organic evolution the form must continually change in order to keep in harmony with the changing environment. In other words evolution is by constant change of species, genera, etc.; there must be a continual evolution of new forms. In human evolution, and more and more as civilisation goes on, man modifies the environment so as to bring it in harmony with himself and his wants, and therefore there is no necessity for change of form 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.
(4) In organic evolution as a higher factor arises it assumes control, and previous factors sink into subordinate position. But in human evolution the rational factor not only assumes control but transforms all other factors, using them in a new way and for its own higher purposes. Thus the Lamarckian factor—environment—is modified and even changed so as to affect suitably the human organism. This is Hygiene or Sanitation. Again, the various organs of the body and faculties of the mind are deliberately used (another Lamarckian factor) in such wise as to produce their highest efficiency. This is education, or training, physical, mental, moral. So also the selective factors are similarly transformed, and natural selection becomes rational selection. This is freely applied to domestic animals and with limitations imposed by reason itself will be applied to man.
(5) The way of evolution toward the highest, i. e. from Protozoa to man and from lowest man to the ideal man, is a very narrow way, and few there be that find it. In the case of organic evolution it is so narrow, that once get off the track and it is impossible to get on again. No living form of animal is now on the way to form man, can by any possibility develop manward. They are all gone out of the way. They are all off the trunk line. The golden opportunity is past. The tree of evolution is an excurrent stem continuous to the terminal shoot—man. Once leave the main stem as a branch, it is easy to continue growing in the direction chosen, but impossible to get back again on the straight upward way to the highest. In human evolution whether individual or racial, the same law holds, but with a difference. If an individual or a race gets off from the straight and narrow way toward the highest, the Divine ideal, it is hard to get back on the track; hard but not impossible. Man's own effort is the chief factor in his own evolution. By virtue of his self-activity, and through the use of reason, man alone is able to rectify an error of direction and return again to the deserted way.