e to be going on a process of natural
selection. Natural selection seems to select more unsparingly and
the struggle for life--or even existence--to grow fiercer as we
advance from lower forms to higher in the animal kingdom.

But the theory which we have agreed to accept teaches us that these
survivors are those which or who have conformed to their environment
and that they have survived because of their conformity. And what do
we mean by environment? And does not man modify his environment?
Certainly he changes by irrigation a desert into a garden. He
carries water against its tendency to the hill-top. But he has
learned to do this only by studying the laws which govern the
motions of fluids and rigorously obeying them. He must carry his
water in strong pipes and take it from some higher point, or must
use heat or some means to furnish the force to drive it to the
higher point. He cannot change a single iota of the law, and gains
control of the elements only by obedience to their laws. Electricity
is man's best servant as long as he respects its laws, but it kills
him who disobeys them. But does not man make his own surroundings in
social life? He merely enters upon a new mode of life; and if this
new mode be in conformity with the eternal forces and laws of
environment man prospers in this new mode of life and conforms still
more closely.

There is, indeed, but one environment, but the lower animal comes in
contact with, and is affected by, but a small portion of its
elements. Form and color were in the world before the animal had
developed an eye, but up to this time these could have but little
effect on animal life. Light vibrations were present in ether long
before the animal by responding to them made them any part of its
own true environment. There is vastly more in environment than man
has yet discovered, and he will discover these elements only by
obedience to their laws.

Environment includes ultimately all the forces and elements which go
to make up our world or universe. It is an exceedingly general term.
I might say that under the environment of certain wheels, springs,
and spindles, which we call a Jacquard loom, silk threads become a
ribbon worthy of a queen. Is Nature and environment only a huge
divine loom to weave man and something higher yet? One great
difference is evident. Under normal conditions the silk must become
a ribbon. But protoplasm can fail to conform and become waste.
Environment is