results of
such studies, although there have been illustrations, especially in
literature, which indicate that many thinkers have had in mind the
attempt to trace and describe the progress of the soul from its bondage
to animalism toward its perfection and glory in the freedom of the
spirit.

Goethe, in "Faust," has made an effort to follow the process by which a
weak woman and a weaker man, ignorant of the forces struggling within
them and susceptible to malign influences from without, through
terrible mistakes and bitter failure, at length reach the heights of
character.

The Trilogy of Dante is a study of the soul in its slow and painful
passage from hell, through purgatory, to heaven. Perhaps, however, the
noblest and truest effort in this direction to be found in the world's
literature is "The Pilgrim's Progress," in which a man of glorious
genius and vision, but without academic culture, reflecting too much the
crude and materialistic theology of his time and condition, follows the
progress of a soul in its movement from the City of Destruction to the
City Celestial. The City of Destruction is the state of animalism and
selfishness from which the race has slowly emerged; and the City
Celestial is not only the Christian's heaven, but also the state of
those who, having escaped from earthliness, having conquered animalism
and risen into the freedom of the spirit, breathe the air and enjoy the
companionship of the sons of God.

It is my purpose in a different way to attempt to trace some of the
steps of what may be called the evolution of the spirit, or, in the
light of modern knowledge, the growth of the soul as it moves upward. At
the outset I must make it plain that I am speaking of evolution since
the time when man as a spirit appeared. Given the spiritual being, what
are the stages through which he will pass on his way to the goal toward
which he is surely pressing?

Just here we should ask, What do we mean by the soul? The word is used
in its popular sense, as synonymous with spirit or personality. Man has
a dual nature; one part of his being is of the dust and to the dust it
returns; the other part is a mystery; it is known only by what it does.
Man thinks, loves, chooses, and is conscious of himself as thinking,
loving, choosing. The unity of this being who thinks, loves, chooses in
a single self-consciousness constitutes him a spirit, or personality;
and that is what the word soul signifies in its popul