Evolution, as we have seen in a previous chapter, is another word for
race-history. It means the ceaseless process of Becoming, linking
generation to generation of living creatures. The Doctrine of Evolution
states the fact that the present is the child of the past and the parent
of the future. It comes to this, that the living plants and animals we
know are descended from ancestors on the whole simpler, and these from
others likewise simpler, and so on, back and back--till we reach the
first living creatures, of which, unfortunately, we know nothing.
Evolution is a process of racial change in a definite direction, whereby
new forms arise, take root, and flourish, alongside of or in the place
of their ancestors, which were in most cases rather simpler in structure
and behaviour.
The rock-record, which cannot be wrong, though we may read it wrongly,
shows clearly that there was once a time in the history of the Earth
when the only backboned animals were Fishes. Ages passed, and there
evolved Amphibians, with fingers and toes, scrambling on to dry land.
Ages passed, and there evolved Reptiles, in bewildering profusion. There
were fish-lizards and sea-serpents, terrestrial dragons and flying
dragons, a prolific and varied stock. From the terrestrial Dinosaurs it
seems that Birds and Mammals arose. In succeeding ages there evolved all
the variety of Birds and all the variety of Mammals. Until at last arose
the Man. The question is whether similar processes of evolution are
still going on.
We are so keenly aware of rapid changes in mankind, though these
concern the social heritage much more than the flesh-and-blood natural
inheritance, that we find no difficulty in the idea that evolution is
going on in mankind. We know the contrast between modern man and
primitive man, and we are convinced that in the past, at least, progress
has been a reality. That degeneration may set in is an awful
possibility--involution rather than evolution--but even if going back
became for a time the rule, we cannot give up the hope that the race
would recover itself and begin afresh to go forward. For although there
have been retrogressions in the history of life, continued through
unthinkably long ages, and although great races, the Flying Dragons for
instance, have become utterly extinct, leaving no successors whatsoever,
we feel sure that there has been on the whole a progress towards nobler,
more masterful, more emancipated, more intelligent, and _better_ forms
of life--a progress towards what mankind at its best has always regarded
as best, i.e. affording most enduring satisfaction. So we think of
evolution going on in mankind, evolution chequered by involution, but on
the whole _progressive evolution_.