EDGE

The evolution of living organisms is in general a gradual and continuous
process. But it is nevertheless true that it presents well-marked stages
and can best be described by reference to these. Frequently, moreover,
the meaning and true nature of the movement at one stage is only
revealed after a subsequent stage has been reached.

The development of a brain or cerebrum marks one important advance. The
presence of this organ renders possible to the animal in varying degree
what are called representations of objects, and the faculty of making
such representations appears to be a condition precedent to the
development of deliberation, volition, and purposive action as opposed
to reflex or instinctive activity. The latter is specially
characteristic of other orders of organic existence such as the
Articulata--being remarkably exemplified in the activities of the social
insects such as the bee.

The advent of man with his faculty of Discourse may be regarded as
marking another distinct stage in the evolutionary movement--a stage,
moreover, the operations of which throw light upon the whole nature of
cerebral representations. The faculty of rational Discourse, as Max
Mueller pointed out, is denominated in Greek by the word +logos+,
applicable at once to the mental activity and to its appropriate
expression in speech. Discourse is an instrument by means of which man
has been enabled to construct his whole system of representations of the
world in which he lives, the system of what is commonly called his
Knowledge. Human Knowledge just is the body of man's representations of
his Experience in the world of which he forms a part. It is not
necessary to insist here on the gradual but remarkable growth and
extension which Human Knowledge has undergone during the last two
thousand years. Concurrently with its extension man's ability to control
the forces of Nature has been enlarged and increased. At the same time,
however, that extension has rendered possible false developments and
aberrations to which the more limited representations of the brute are
less liable.

With the faculty of rational Discourse constantly striving to extend the
bounds of Knowledge, man came in time to attempt to give an account not
only of the immediate objects which surround him, but of the whole choir
of Heaven and furniture of Earth. In this advance the Greeks took a
leading part.

When we first make acquaintance through historical record