The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1907-08-21

serve no purpose now and remain only
in atrophied proportions as signs of
past functions and other conditions of
life. Many of these were adapted
ouly to the position on all tours.
The vermiform appendix, which in
certain families of the ape is still in
use as digestive sac. is a familiar
example. while the remains of the
mechanism by which the our ances-
tors wagged their tails are still trace
able in the human back
1t was the distinction of an Ameri-
can writer. Mr.. John Fiske. to have
been the first to point out in the in
huence in this ethical development of
the lengthening term in of infancy.
AS life rises to the higher forms the
species become less prolific, until
among the higher animals the mother
gives birth usually to but one at
time. The lower creatures come. in
swarms. have little to learn. and are
born with almost full powers. AS
the life stream gains in its content
the individual is born with greater
latent capacities and more time is re-
quired for it to reach maturity. The
chicken is ready to walk when it
comes out of the egg shell. but, the
tailless ape of the Indian Archipelago
with a cerebral surface exceeding that
of all other animals begins life as q
helpless baby unable to walk feed
itself or grasp objects until two or
three months old. The most helpless
of all creatures with the longest
period of infancy and childhood is the
offspring of civilized man
With the growth of ethical ideas
which had their roots in the family
relation the old law of the survival Of
the fittest began TO take on new
meaning. 1t no longer meant the
survival of the strongest or most cum
ming Individual. The weak who were
loved were protected and the families
and tribes and nations which devel-
oped in the highest degree the quail
| ties-a Ia.,al.4.---l ci-1:-s anu pa
best organized and the most formid-
able in war and survived over their
ethically inferior rivals. So this new
element OF seeming weakness in a
rude society this developing tender
ness which caused the strong to volun-
| tarily burden themselves with the care
of the weak proved in a larger sense
| to be source of strength And so it
has been all the way up the line of
human progress.
The primitive man was industrially
self sufficient and regarded the other
man across river or over noun
tain as natural enemy to be killed
or despoiled. 1t was natural that the
competitive struggle in the business
world should at FIRST show reseln-
blance to the earlier and bloodier
struggles of the race. But the ex-
perience and personal relations which
men have in business life tend to
broaden them and to develop higher
standards of action and higher concep-
tions of the business function.
Altruistic sentiment spring naturally
from the higher business life because
that life affords large view of the
common interest of mankind. This
real solidarity of human interest is to
be the great revelation of the future.
Nations are learning that they are
helped and not injured by each other g
prosperity. Time was when man S
competitor was his enemy as a matter
of course but our industrial associa-
tions and labor organizations show a
broad movement towards cooperative
relations. The true conception of a
business career is not that of warfare
on competitor but of honest service
to the community. If anybody thinks
this progress is painfully discourag
ingly slow let him look back only
about fifty years. Fifty years is
little in the history of mankind but
. it reaches nearly back to that fateful
, year 1848 when the COMMISSIONS of op
pressed humanity shook every throne
in Europe. Let any man review the
record since that date, or better still
since July 4, 1776, read what has beer
e done for free speeches. representative
government. religious liberty. popular
' education. prison reform. the revisio,
. of criminal laws. elevation of woman
and the general amelioration of tn,
z condition of masses. and answer with
: out faith in the Evolutionary philos
: ophy il he can.
Professor Lankestar in lecture at
: Oxford two years ago said that no
e only was it an error to suppose thai
n according to the theory. of Evolution
e man came by chance. but that on tn,
o contrary it is specific assertion that
| he is the predestined outcome of q.
: orderly and. to large extent percept
/. ible mechanism.