The Destiny of Man

This argument, originally an address delivered before the Concord School of Philosophy, gives the simplest possible statement of the general theory-not the particular processes-of evolution, and openly endeavors to reconcile the spirit and teachings of modern science with those of the New Testament. While declaring that the brain of an Australian savage is many times further removed from Shakespeare's than from an orang outang's, he yet shows that evolution, far from degrading man to the level of the beast, makes it evident that man is the chief object of the Divine care. Man is, after all, the center of the universe-though not in the sense that the oppressors of Bruno and Galileo supposed. And before man's reinstatement in his central and dominant position became possible, the limited and distorted hypothesis of theologians and poets had to be overthrown. Much stress is laid on the insignificance of physical in comparison with psychical phenomena: more amazing than the change from a fin to a fore-limb are the psychical variations that set in (almost to the exclusion of physical variations) after the beginnings of intelligence in the human species. The superiority of man lies not in perfection but in improvableness. The body is becoming a mere vehicle for that soul which for a long time was only an appendage to it. On scientific grounds there is no argument for immortality and none against it; but if the work of evolution does not culminate in immortality, then the universe is indeed reduced to a meaningless riddle. 1 Mr. Fiske does not believe that in the far-distant future, when food and shelter have been placed within the reach of all men, disease curbed, and warfare and crime done away, life will grow stale and unprofitable, but on the contrary more and more absorbingly spiritua