ety, and our language are only the varied outer
signs of one and the same internal superiority. Each after its fashion,
they tell us the unique and exceptional success which life has won at a
given moment of its evolution. They translate the difference in nature,
and not in degree only, which separates man from the rest of the animal
world. They let us see that if, at the end of the broad springboard from
which life took off, all others came down, finding the cord stretched
too high, man alone has leapt the obstacle."

But man is not on that account isolated in nature: "As the smallest
grain of dust forms part of our entire solar system, and is involved
along with it in this undivided downward movement which is materiality
itself, so all organised beings from the humblest to the highest, from
the first origins of life to the times in which we live, and in all
places as at all times, do but demonstrate to our eyes a unique impulse
contrary to the movement of matter, and, in itself, indivisible. All
living beings are connected, and all yield to the same formidable
thrust. The animal is supported by the plant, man rides the animal, and
the whole of humanity in space and time is an immense army galloping by
the side of each of us, before and behind us, in a spirited charge which
can upset all resistance, and leap many obstacles, perhaps even death."
("Creative Evolution", pages 293-294.)

We see with what broad and far-reaching conclusions the new philosophy
closes. In the forcible poetry of the pages just quoted its original
accent rings deep and pure. Some of its leading theses, moreover, are
noted here. But now we must discover the solid foundation of underlying
fact.

Let us take first the fact of biological evolution. Why has it been
selected as the basis of the system? Is it really a fact, or is it only
a more or less conjectural and plausible theory?

Notice in the first instance that the argument from evolution appears at
least as a weapon of co-ordination and research admitted in our day by
all philosophers, rejected only on the inspiration of preconceived ideas
which are completely unscientific; and that it succeeds in the task
allotted to it is doubtless already the proof that it responds to
some part of reality. And besides, we can go further. "The idea of
transformism is already contained in germ in the natural classification
of organised beings. The naturalist brings resembling organisms
together, divides