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 the group into
sub-groups, within which the resemblance is still greater, and so on;
throughout the operation, the characteristics of the group appear as
general themes upon which each of the sub-groups executes its particular
variations.

"Now this is precisely the relation we find in the animal world and in the
vegetable world between that which produces and what is produced; on the