pward drive of the _elan vital_ constitutes what
may properly be known as evolution, the declining fall the process of
devolution or degeneration. Evolution then is only one part of the
cosmic process, it is inseparable from degeneration.

This process holds in the case of individuals, of families, of races, of
states and of eras, or definite and completed periods of time. As man is
begotten, born, developed to maturity and then is brought downward to
the grave, so in the case of races and nations and the clearly defined
epochs into which the history of man divides itself. There is no
mechanical system of "progress," no cumulative wisdom and power that in
the end will inevitably lead to earthly perfection and triumph. For
every individual there is the possibility of spiritual evolution within
the time allotted that will open for him the gates that bar the
frontiers of the world of reality and of redemption that lies beyond
that world of earthly life which is the field of contest between
unredeemed matter and redeeming spirit, of contest and of victory--or of
failure. In the case of races and nations and epochs there is the same
conflict between material factors and spiritual energy; the same
crescent youth with all its primal vitality, maturity with its assurance
and competence, and the dying fall of dissipating energies. In each case
death is the concomitant of life but there is always something that
lasts over, and that is the spiritual achievement, the precious residuum
that remains, defying death and dissolution, that infuses the plane of
life with its redemptive ardour, and is the heritage of lives that come
after, acting with the sacramental agencies of religion in cooeperation
with God Who ordained and compassed them both, in that great process of
redemption and salvation that is continually taking place and will
continue until matter, and time which is but the ratio of the resistance
of matter to the redeeming power of spirit, shall be no more.

I confess the hopelessly mechanical quality in this vain attempt to put
into words something that by its very nature must transcend all modes of
expression that are intellectually apprehendable. Taken literally it
would be entirely false and probably heretical from a theological point
of view, as it certainly is more than inadequate as a philosophical
proposition. It is intended only as a symbol, and a gross symbol at
that, but as such I will let it stand.

Now if ther