PROFESSOR BUTTON ON EVOLUTION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11867, 20 January 1902, Page 7

PROFESSOR BUTTON ON EVOLUTION.

' 1 &T the ninth session of the Australasian Association for. the Advancement of Science, the . president (Professor Hutt-on, of Christchurch) delivered an address on " Evolution and its Teaching." He concluded thus: — . This new doctrine of evolution has changed the whole aspect of natural philosophy. We •were now compelled to assume as the first : cause a power outside of nature, without which the material universe could .never -have come into existence. Physical evolution, biological evolution, and psychological evolution were still going on. So far as the earth was concerned, physical evolution had - reached, probably it had passed, its optimum, for the earth could not in future be - better fitted for development of life than it was now. . Biological evolution had also reached its optimum in man, whose body • : had i been .practically stationary, since. the middle of the pleistocene period, and could not now. be .affected by natural selection. Indeed, ever since the beginning of the neolithic age man had been engaged in combating natural selection by endeavouring to alter the surrounding conditions to suit himself. This lie did by making artificial warmth, building houses., making clothes, • and cultivating land. Psychological evoluv, tion, however, , had not reached its optimum. ■ The development of the human mind .. was but in its infancy. Man's origin dated back only some tens of thousands of years, ' while he has several millions of years before him. It was impossible, to predict what (will happen, but we might feel sure that psychological evolution would continue. The development of man's moral nature must be a purpose towards which evolution tends on earth., If evolution were gradually leading to a state of perfect happiness on earth we \ might suppose that the millennium was approaching, ' but psychological evolution was not making towards happiness. Civilised man could not boast that he was happier . than the savage. Ethical evolution seemed to be leading up to something which was ■ not displayed on earth, and which we could only conceive as a further development of psychological evolution when the mind was freed from matter. And thus at the dawn of the twentieth century Ave come back to the old belief held by rude men who inhabited Europe in the neolithic age, that man's ■; spirit does not- die with his body. But we ..hoped that we had surer grounds for that /.belief than had our ancient ancestors, who, as he had already pointed out, founded their opinion solely .on their dreams.