progressive development is not meted out equally to all races of
mankind, or to all of the individuals of the same race. The central
impulse of development seems to have come from the East, in historic
times at least, and to have followed the line of the Mediterranean,
to have culminated in Europe. And this progress has certainly been
the work of a few minds--minds exceptionally endowed.

For the most part the barbarian races do not progress. Their
exceptional minds or characters do not lead the tribes to higher
planes of thought, In all countries we still see these barbarous
people which man in his progress has left behind. Our civilization
is like a field of light that fades off into shadows and darkness.
There is this margin of undeveloped humanity on all sides. Always
has it been so in the animal life of the globe; the higher forms
have been pushed up from the lower, and the lower have remained and
continued to multiply unchanged.

It seems as if some central and cherished impulse had pushed on
through each form, and by successive steps had climbed from height
to height, gaining a little here and a little there, intensifying
and concentrating as time went on, very vague and diffuse at first,
embryonic so to speak, during the first half of the great geologic
year, but quickening more and more, differentiating more and more,
delayed and defeated many times, no doubt, yet never destroyed,
leaving form after form unchanged behind it, till it at last reached
its goal in man.

After evolution has done all it can do for us toward solving the
mystery of creation, much remains unsolved.