s simile, the process of evolution is not like that
of a cannon-ball which followed one line, but like that of a shell,
which burst into fragments the moment it was fired off; and these
fragments being, as it were, themselves shells, in their turn burst
into other fragments, themselves in their turn destined to burst, and
so on throughout the whole process. The very lines, on which the
process of evolution has moved, show the process to be dispersive. If
we represent the line by which man has risen from the simplest forms
of life or protoplasm by an upright line; and the line by which the
lowest forms of life, such as some of the foraminifera, have continued
on their low level, by a horizontal line starting from the bottom of
the upright line, then we have two lines forming a right angle. One
represents the line of man's evolution, the other that of the
foraminifera. Between these two lines you may insert as many other
lines as necessary. That line which is most nearly upright will
represent the evolution of the highest form of vertebrate, except man;
the next, the next highest; and so on till you come to the lines
representing the invertebrates; and so on till you come to the lines
which are getting nearer and nearer to the horizontal. Thus you will
have a whole sheaf of lines, all radiating indeed from one common
point, but all nevertheless dispersing in different directions.

The rush of life, the _elan de la vie_, is thus dispersive; and if we
are to interpret the evolution of mental on the analogy of physical
life, we shall find, M. Bergson says, nothing in the latter which
compels us to assume either that intelligence is developed instinct,
or that instinct is degraded intelligence. If that be so, then, we may
say, neither is there anything to warrant us in assuming either that
religion is developed magic, or magic degraded religion. Spell is not
degraded prayer, nor is prayer a superior form of spell: neither does
become or can become the other, though man may oscillate, with great
rapidity, between the two, and for long may continue so to oscillate.
The two moods were from the beginning different, though man for long
did not clearly discriminate between the two. The dispersive force of
evolution however tends to separate them more and more widely, until
eventually oscillation ceases, if it does not become impossible.

The dispersive force of evolution manifests itself in the power of
discrimination whereby man