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Test Bank for Evidence Based Practice for Nursing
and Healthcare Quality Improvement 1st Edition by
LoBiondo Wood
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Chapter 01: Overview of Evidence-Based Practice
LoBiondo-wood: Evidence-Based Practice for Nursing and Health Care Quality
Improvement, 1st Edition
MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. The first step in the evidence-based process is to
a. form a team of health care providers.
b. retrieve evidence.
c. select an EBP topic.
d. critically appraise evidence.
ANS: C
The steps for EBP are: select an EBP topic, form a team, evidence retrieval, critical appraisal of
evidence, evidence synthesis, set
forth EBP recommendations, decision to change practice, convey EBP recommendations to local
standards, policies or procedures,
implement practice change, evaluation, and dissemination.
2. Which agency is the National Guideline Clearinghouse of publicly available database of
evidence-based clinical practice guidelines
and related documents?
a. The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI)
b. The Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations
(JCAHO)
c. The United States Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF)
d. The Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research (AHRQ)
ANS: D
AHRQ provides a variety of EBP function including serving as the National Guideline
Clearinghouse: publicly available database
of evidence-based clinical practice guidelines and related documents. Updated weekly with new
content, NGC provides an
accessible mechanism for obtaining objective, detailed information on clinical practice
guidelines to further dissemination, and
implementation. Examples of IHI Evidence-Based Standards or Recommendations include
development of a patient and
family-centered ICU, Communication about end-of-life care, the opioid crisis and building
systems of safety. Examples of JCAHO

Evidence-Based Standards or Recommendations include fall prevention, patient/family
education, prevention of CAUTI, and
prevention of medication errors. The USPSTF assigns recommendations for prevention and
evidence-based health care a letter
grade (an A, B, C, or D grade or an I statement) based on strength of the evidence and balance of
benefits and harms of a
preventive service. The Task Force does not consider costs of a preventive service when
determining a recommendation grade.
3. Which of the following statements comparing evidence-based practice to the conduction of
research is true?
a. EBP poses research questions or hypotheses that advance the state of the science.
b. The purpose of EBP is to gain knowledge/science generation.
c. Standardized-dependent measures with known reliability and validity are used as
evaluation methods for EBP.
d. EBP evaluation includes quality improvement metrics that address both processes
of care and patient outcomes.
ANS: D
Conduct of research poses research questions or hypothesis that advance the state of the science.
The purpose of an EBP clinical
question or purpose of the EBP project is derived from the PICO. Application of research
findings and/or other evidence in local
practice and/or communities is another purpose of EBP. Standardized-dependent measures with
known reliability and validity are
used as evaluation of conduction of research.
4. Which of the following is an example of an evidence-based practice approach?
a. Smoking cessation reports from participants for 6 months prior to
implementation, mid-way during implementation (3 months), and following
implementation of a “Stop Smoking” program
b. Comparison of blood pressure in one group who walk 20 minutes a day/5 days a
week versus another group who are sedentary
c. Measuring heart rate on volunteers who listen to music prior to sleep versus
volunteers who do not listen to music prior to sleep
d. Comparison of patient satisfaction scores from two medical surgical units over a
3-month period
ANS: A
The approach in EBP is a nonresearch design. For a specific period of time measures are tracked
pre-implementation, during
implementation, post-implementation. The other responses are examples of the conduct of
research approach which is aligned with
the research questions/hypotheses (e.g., observational; RCT; step-wedge design).
Copyright © 2019, Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 2
5. Which of the following is the best description of translational research? Translational research
a. is the systematic investigation of a phenomenon to answer research questions or

hypotheses that advances the state of the science.
b. focuses on the generation and synthesis of evidence that compares benefits and
harms of alternative methods to prevent, diagnose, treat, and monitor a clinical
condition, or to improve the delivery of care.
c. is a dynamic continuum from basic research through application of research
findings in practice, communities, and public health settings to improve health
and health outcomes, progresses across five phases.
d. is a field of science that focuses on testing implementation interventions to
improve uptake and use of evidence to improve patient outcomes and population
health, and explicate what implementation strategies work for whom, in what
settings, and why.
ANS: C
Conduct of research is the systematic investigation of a phenomenon to answer research
questions or hypotheses that advances the
state of the science. Comparative effectiveness research (CER) focuses on the generation and
synthesis of evidence that compares
benefits and harms of alternative methods to prevent, diagnose, treat, and monitor a clinical
condition, or to improve the delivery of
care. Implementation science (also called translation science) is a field of science that focuses on
testing implementation
interventions to improve uptake and use of evidence to improve patient outcomes and population
health, and explicate what
implementation strategies work for whom, in what settings, and why.
6. Which statement regarding evidence-based practice is true?
a. The nursing profession is the sole contributor and user of EBP.
b. Evidence-based practice and conduct of research have distinct purposes,
questions, approaches, and evaluative measures.
c. Teams working with EBP should consist of only health care providers.
d. EBP and translation science are interchangeable terms.
ANS: B
Participation in and contribution to EBP is essential for many professionals to plan, provide, and
evaluate optimal care. The
application of evidence to improve quality of care and patient outcomes is central to health care
improvement. The national agenda
for EBP is clearly in the forefront of health care. When considering members of the EBP team,
consideration should be given to
including lay-persons who have experience with the selected topic. Involving consumers may
increase their understanding of why
certain EBPs are used in what circumstances and why they are important. EBP and translation
science are not interchangeable
terms. Translational science is a dynamic continuum from basic research through application of
research findings in practice,
communities, and public health settings to improve health and health outcomes, progresses

across five phases.
7. Leaders of health care systems have an opportunity to promote an organizational culture that
makes evidence-informed leadership
decisions, and creates evidence-based practice environments to promote high quality, safe patient
care by doing which of the
following?
a. Creating and enacting an organizational mission, vision, and strategic plan that
incorporates evidence-based practice
b. Developing and implementing performance expectations for all staff that include
evidence-based practice work
c. Integrating the work of evidence-based practice into the governance structure of
the health system
d. All of the above
ANS: D
Evidence is now available for a variety of topics to inform leadership and administrative
decision-making (e.g., staff turnover, staff
performance, optimizing staffing patterns). Therefore, the leaders of your health care system
have an accountability to promote an
organizational culture that makes evidence-informed leadership decisions, and creates evidence-
based practice environments to
promote high quality, safe patient care. This includes: creating and enacting an organizational
mission, vision, and strategic plan
that incorporates EBP; developing and implementing performance expectations for all staff that
include EBP work; integrating the
work of EBP into the governance of the health system; role modeling the value of EBP through
administrative behaviors; and
establishing explicit expectations that nurse leaders create microsystems that value and support
clinical inquiry.
8. Expectations of doctoral prepared nurses in the area of evidence-based practice include
a. development, implementation, and evaluation the effect of EBP programs at the
organization and system levels.
b. design, direct, and evaluate quality improvement methodologies to promote safe,
timely, effective, efficient, equitable, and patient-centered care.
c. explication of the return on investment of EBP.
d. All of the above
ANS: D
Nurses with doctorates of nursing practice (DNPs) are expected to: be experts in EBP; possess
the knowledge and skills of Master’s
prepared nurse’s as well as being knowledgeable about the latest evidence for their patient
populations; developing, implementing,
and evaluating the effect of EBP programs at the organization, and system level; designing,
directing, and evaluating quality
improvement methodologies to promote safe, timely, effective, efficient, equitable, and patient-

centered care; explicate the return
on investment of EBP; negotiate systems changes that foster practice climates for EPB; negotiate
systems changes that foster
practice climates for EBP; and role model knowledge and skills of EBP.
9. The first step of EBP is?
a. Topic selection
b. Evodence synthesis
c. Form a team
d. Evidence retrieval
ANS: A
EBP steps include: select an EBP topic, form a team, evidence retrevial, critical appraisal of the
evidence, evidence synthesis, set
forth evidence-based practice reommendtions, decision to chage practice, convert EBP
recommendations into local standards
policie or procedures, implement the practice chge, evaluation, and dissemination.
10. Which of the following were seminal projects that laid the groundwork for application of
research findings in practice to improve
patient care, known today as evidence-based practice (EBP)?
a. Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education in Nursing (WICHEN)
regional program on nursing research development
b. Nursing Child Assessment Satellite Training project (NCAST)
c. Moving New Knowledge into Practice Project
d. All of the above
ANS: D
Seminal projects that laid the groundwork for application of research findings in practice to
improve patient care, known today as
evidence-based practice (EBP) include: Conduct and Utilization of Research in Nursing (CURN)
project, Western Interstate
Commission for Higher Education in Nursing (WICHEN) regional program on nursing research
development, Nursing Child
Assessment Satellite Training project (NCAST), Moving New Knowledge into Practice Project,
and Orange County Research
Utilization in Nursing Project.
11. Evidence-based practice involves
a. the systematic investigation of a phenomenon to answer research questions.
b. a hypothesis that generates new knowledge and advances the state of the science.
c. conscientious and judicious use of current best evidence in conjunction with
clinical expertise, patient values, and circumstances to guide health care
decisions.
d. use of tools to collect data with demonstrated reliability and validity.
ANS: C
Evidence-based practice and conduct of research have distinct purposes, questions, approaches,

and evaluation methods. Conduct
of research is the systematic investigation of a phenomenon to answer research questions or
hypotheses that generate new
knowledge and advance the state of the science. Randomized controlled trials are often evaluated
in conduct of research aiming to
advance science. Tools with demonstrated reliability and validity are used to collect and compare
data. Findings of conduct of
research are often disseminated at scientific conferences and in scientific journals.
12. Which of the following is not a component of structure-process-outcome?
a. Structure
b. Process
c. Outcome
d. Hypothesis
ANS: D
Components of structure-process-outcome include: structure—the physical and organizational
components of care delivery such as
facilities, equipment, and staffing, process—services and treatments patients receive, and
outcomes—effect that the processes of
care have on patients and populations. Hypothesis development and evaluation is a component of
conduct of research.
TRUE/FALSE
1. Members of evidence-based practice teams should consist solely of practicing health care
providers?
ANS: F
The composition of an EBP team varies on the question being asked, the patient population, and
the anticipated resources needed.
Potential EBP teams can be comprised of a broad array of health professionals including, but not
limited to nurses, nurse
practitioners and midwives, physicians, physician assistants, social workers, pharmacists, as well
as occupational and physical
therapists. Other potential members who have important contributions to make such as QI
specialists, staff from infection control or
finance, health science librarians, or IT support staff may be considered. Depending on the
patient population and practice setting,
point-of-care providers such as care coordinators, patient navigators, and community health
workers also may offer important
contributions to the EBP Team.
Consideration should be given to including a lay-person who has experience with the topic on
the EBP team. Lay-people can lend
their expertise as recipients of health care and provide input into practices important to them.
Involving consumers may increase
their understanding of why certain EBPs are used in what circumstances and why they are
important. Consumers may be helpful in

championing the use of EBPs, and consumers may provide insights into evaluation components
of EBP.
2. Despite the availability of evidence-based recommendations for practice, the 2014 National
Healthcare Quality and Disparities
Report demonstrated that evidence-based care is delivered only 70% of the time?
ANS: T
Despite the availability of evidence-based recommendations for practice, the 2014 National
Healthcare Quality and Disparities
Report demonstrated that evidence-based care is delivered only 70% of the time, an
improvement of just 4% since 2005.
3. Nursing research began in the 1970s.
ANS: F
Nursing research was pioneered by Florence Nightingale in the mid-1800s. Nightingale used
data to change practices that
contributed to high mortality rates in hospitals and communities.
4. When planning for implementation of evidence-based practice, the value of the EBP practice
topic as perceived by users and
stakeholders is the only factor which determines the rate and extent of adoption.
ANS: F
When planning for implementation of EBPs, it is not just the importance or value of the
evidence-based practice topic as perceived
by users and stakeholders that will influence their adoption. It is the interaction among the
characteristics of the evidence-based
practice topic, the intended users, and a particular context of practice that determines the rate and
extent of adoption.
5. Quality improvement emphasizes customer satisfaction, teams and teamwork, and the
continuous improvement of work processes.
ANS: T
Quality improvement (QI) is both a philosophy of organizational functioning and a set of
analysis tools and change techniques to
reduce variations in the quality of care provided by health care organizations. QI emphasizes
customer satisfaction, teams and
teamwork, and the continuous improvement of work processes. Other defining features include:
setting organizational performance
goals and expectations, use of data to make decisions, and standardization of work processes to
reduce variation across providers
and service encounters.
6. Evidence-based practice is a type of quality improvement that focuses on implementing
evidence-based processes of care to
improve patient outcomes and population health.
ANS: T
Evidence-based practice is a type of quality improvement that focuses on implementing
evidence-based processes of care to

improve patient outcomes and population health.
7. Translational science provides a scientific base for guiding the selection of implementation
strategies to promote adoption of
evidence-based practice in real-world settings.
ANS: T
Translational science provides a scientific base for guiding the selection of implementation
strategies to promote adoption of
evidence-based practice in real-world settings.

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assuredly be better filled up, if some of the original occupants were
in some manner modified, for had the area been open to
immigration, these same places would have been seized by
intruders. Thus, slight modifications, which any way favored the
individuals of a species, would by better adapting them to changed
conditions tend to become preserved, and Natural Selection would
there have free scope for the work of improvement. Changes in the
conditions of life cause or excite a tendency to vary. In the foregoing
case the conditions are supposed to have changed, and this would
manifestly be favorable, by giving a better chance of profitable
variations occurring, to Natural Selection, for unless such do occur,
Natural Selection can do nothing. As man, by adding up in any given
direction individual differences, can certainly produce a great result
with his domestic animals and plants, so could Natural Selection, but
far more easily from having an incomparably longer time for its
action. No great physical change, as of climate, nor any unusual
degree of isolation to check immigration, is actually necessary, it
would seem, to produce new and unoccupied places for Natural
Selection to fill up by modifying and improving some of the varying
inhabitants, for as all the inhabitants of a country are struggling
together with nicely-balanced forces, extremely-slight modifications
in the structure or habits of one species would often give it an
advantage over others; and still further modifications, so long as the
species continued under the same conditions of life and profited by
similar means of subsistence and defence, would often still further
augment the advantage. No country can be mentioned whose native
inhabitants are now so perfectly adapted to each other and to their
environment that none could be better adapted and improved, for in
all countries the natives have been so far conquered by naturalized
productions as to have allowed them to take firm possession of the
land. And as foreigners have thus in every country beaten some of
the natives, it may be safely concluded that the latter might have
been modified with profit so as to have better resisted the intruders.
A man by his methodical and unconscious means of selection can
produce and has produced great results. What may not Natural
Selection effect? Man can only operate on external and visible

characters, but nature cares nothing for appearances, except in so
far as they are beneficial to any being. She can act on every internal
organ, on every shade of constitutional difference and, in fine, on
the entire machinery of life. Man selects exclusively for his own
advantage, but nature solely for that of the being she tends, and
under her judicious selection the slightest difference of structure or
constitution may well turn the nicely-balanced scale in the Struggle
for Existence, and thus be preserved. As fleeting as are the wishes
and efforts of man, and as short as is his earthly career, so poor,
therefore, must be the results which he accomplishes when
compared with those accumulated by nature during whole geological
periods. Is it a wonder, then, that her productions should be far truer
in character than man’s, and that they should be infinitely better
adapted to the most complex conditions of life and should bear the
stamp of far higher workmanship? Metaphorically speaking, Natural
Selection may be said to be daily and hourly scrutinizing, throughout
the world, the slightest variations, rejecting the bad, preserving and
adding up the good, and silently and insensibly working, whenever
and wherever opportunities occur, at the betterment of each organic
being in relation to its organic and inorganic conditions of life. So
slow is her work that we see nothing of the changes in progress,
and only when the hand of time has marked the lapse of ages do we
perceive that changes have been produced; but then so imperfect is
our view into long-past geological periods, that we see only that the
forms of life are now different from what they formerly were. That
any great amount of modification in any point should be effected, a
variety once formed must again, perhaps after a long interval of
time, present individual differences of the same favorable character,
and these must again be preserved, and so onward step by step. As
individual differences of all kinds perpetually recur, this can hardly be
considered as an unwarrantable assumption. Judged by the extent
the hypothesis accords with and explains the general phenomena of
nature, notwithstanding the ordinary belief that the amount of
possible variation is a strictly-limited quantity, we are justified, it
seems to us, in assuming that all this has actually taken place. But in
looking at many small points of difference between species, which in

our ignorance seem quite unimportant, we must not lose sight of the
facts that climate, food and modes of life may have produced some
direct effect, and also of the truth that, owing to the Law of
Correlation, when one part varies, and the variations are
accumulated through the Survival of the Fittest, other modifications
often of the most unlooked-for nature will ensue.
As under domestication these variations are known to appear at a
particular period of life, and tend to reappear in the offspring at the
same period, so, in a state of nature, it is reasonable to infer that
Natural Selection will be enabled to act on and modify organic
beings at any age, by the accumulation of variations useful at that
age, and by their inheritance at a corresponding age. Thus, if it be
profitable to a plant to have its seeds more and more widely
disseminated by the wind, there can be no greater difficulty in
conceiving this to be effected through Natural Selection than in
conceiving the increasing and improving of the down in the pods on
his cotton-trees by a wise selection upon the part of a cotton-planter.
Natural Selection may modify and adapt the larva of an insect to a
score of contingencies, wholly different from those which affect the
mature insect, and these modifications through Correlation may
work changes in the structure of the adult. On the other hand,
modifications of the adult may affect the structure of the larva, but
in all such cases Natural Selection will insure that these changes
shall not be injurious, for, if they were so, the extinction of the
species would be the inevitable result. Thousands of instances might
be given to show the influence which Natural Selection, or Sexual
Selection, which is only a less vigorous phase of the former, has had
all through the ages in the adaptation of life to the places in nature
which it was intended to occupy in pursuance of the plan formulated
by the Great Originator and Designer of the Universe.
Despite the imperfection of the geological record, which has been
urged as a serious objection to the theory of descent with
modification, sensible, intelligent, educated men no longer doubt
that species have all changed, and that they have changed in the
way required, for they have changed slowly and in a graduated
manner. This is clearly seen in the fossil remains from consecutive

formations being invariably much more closely allied to each other
than are those from widely-separated formations. It is true
geological research does not yield those infinitely fine gradations
between past and present species which the theory of Natural
Selection requires, but when it is remembered that only a small
portion of the world has been geologically explored; that only
organic beings of certain classes, at least in any great number, can
be preserved in a fossil condition; that many species when once
formed never undergo any further change, but become extinct
without leaving any modified descendants; that dominant and
widely-ranging species vary the most and the most frequently, and
that varieties are often at first only local, it is not at all surprising
that the discovery of intermediate links to any considerable extent
should not have been made. Local varieties, as is well known, will
not diffuse themselves into other and distant localities until they
have become very much modified and improved, and when they
have thus diffused themselves, and are discovered in a geological
formation, they will appear as if suddenly created there, and will
simply be ranked as new species. Besides, formations have often
been intermittent in their accumulation, and their duration has
probably been shorter than the average duration of specific forms.
And as successive formations in most cases are separated from each
other by blank intervals of time of considerable length, and as
fossiliferous formations thick enough to withstand future degradation
can as a general rule be accumulated only where much sediment is
laid down in the subsiding bed of the ocean, it follows that during
the alternate periods of elevation and of stationary level the record
will generally be blank or devoid of fossil remains. During these
latter periods there will doubtless be more variability in the forms of
life, and during the periods of subsidence a greater amount of
extinction. Now, as geology plainly declares that each land has
undergone great physical changes, we have a right to expect that
organic beings have varied under nature in the same manner as they
have varied under domestication, and such have scientific study and
research found to be the case. And if there has been any variability
under nature, such a fact would seem unaccountable unless Natural

Selection, or the Survival of the Fittest, did not come into play. Upon
the view that variations have occurred in nature and have been
preserved and accumulated by Natural Selection, and not in the
ordinary view of independent creation, we can understand why the
specific characters, or those by which the species of the same genus
differ from each other, should be more variable than the generic
characters in which they all agree. Inexplicable as is the occasional
appearance of stripes on the shoulders and legs of the different
equine species and their hybrids on the theory of creation, yet how
simply is the fact explained if we believe that they are all descended
from a striped progenitor just as the different domestic breeds of
pigeons are descended from the blue and barred rock-pigeons. Why,
for example, should the color of a flower be more likely to vary in
any one species of a genus, if the other species, supposed to have
been created independently, have differently-colored flowers, than if
all the species of the genus have the same colored flowers? On the
theory that species are only well-marked varieties, of which the
characters have become in a high degree permanent, the fact is
intelligible, for they have already varied in certain characters since
they branched off from a common progenitor, and by these
characters they have come to be specifically distinct from each other.
Therefore, these same characters would be more likely again to vary
than the generic characters which have been inherited without
change for an enormous period of time.
Upon the theory of Natural Selection, or the Survival of the Fittest,
with its contingencies of extinction and divergence of character, we
can see how it is that all past and present organic beings can be
arranged within a few classes, in groups subordinate to groups, and
with the extinct groups often falling in between the recent groups.
We can see how it is that the mutual affinities of the forms within
each class are so complex and diversified, and only adaptive
characters, though of superior importance to the beings, are of
scarcely any significance in classification, while those derived from
rudimentary parts, though of no recognized service, are often of
high classificatory value, and only embryological characters are
frequently the most valuable of all. The real affinities of all

organisms, in contradistinction to their adaptive likenesses, are due
to inheritance or community of descent. Hence, a natural system of
classification is a genealogical arrangement, with the acquired
grades of difference, denoted by varieties, species, genera, families,
etc., and their lines of descent have to be discovered by the most
permanent characters, whatever they may be and how little of vital
importance they may possess.
That species are immutable productions, which was until quite
recently the current belief by laymen and naturalists, was almost
unavoidable so long as the world was considered to be of short
duration. But now that some idea has been acquired of the time that
has elapsed since the beginning of earth-life, we are too apt to
assume, without proof, that the geologic record is so complete, that
it would have afforded us some plain evidence of the mutation of
species, if they had undergone mutation. But the principal cause of
our unwillingness to admit that one species has given birth to other
and distinct species, is that we are always slow in admitting any
great change of which we do not discern the intermediate steps.
Just such a difficulty was felt by many geologists when Lyell first
insisted that long lines of inland cliffs had been produced, and great
valleys excavated, by the agencies which are still at work in the
earth. No effort of mind can adequately grasp the meaning of even
ten million of years, nor add up and perceive the full effects of the
many slight variations to which species have been subjected during
an almost infinite number of generations. The day, however, is not
distant, when mankind will have become just as thoroughly
convinced that species have been modified during a long course of
descent, mainly through the Natural Selection of innumerous
successive, slight and favorable variations as they are that the
attraction of gravitation is an important element in the maintenance
of the harmony that exists among the planetary spheres. That the
law of the attraction of gravity, which is perhaps the greatest
discovery ever made by man, is subversive of natural and revealed
religion, which was at one time maintained by a no more
distinguished person than Leibnitz, is now no longer objected to,
even though its discoverer was unable to explain what is the essence

of the principle he had discovered. No nobler conception of Deity
could be entertained than that which attributes to Him the creation
of a few original forms capable of self-development into other and
needful forms, or the origination de novo of these simple forms from
inorganic nature. It places a higher estimate upon His Omnipotence
than the belief that He required a fresh act of creation to supply the
voids caused by the action of His laws. That science is as yet unable
to throw any light on the far higher problem of the essence or origin
of life, should constitute no valid objection to the theory of descent.
When all beings are looked upon not as special creations, but as
the lineal descendants of some beings that existed long before the
first bed of ancient Siluria was deposited, they seem to become
ennobled. Judging from the past, we think it safe to conclude that
no existing species will transmit its unaltered likeness to a distant
futurity. Few, very few living species will transmit progeny of any
kind, for the manner in which all organisms are grouped shows that
the majority of species in each genus, and all the species in many
genera, have left no descendants, but have become utterly extinct.
It will only be the common and widely-spread species, belonging to
the larger and dominant groups within each class, that will ultimately
prevail and procreate new and dominant species. Since all the living
forms of life are the lineal descendants of forms that lived long
anterior to the Silurian epoch, it is reasonably certain that the
ordinary succession by generation has never once been broken, and
that no cataclysmic disaster has laid waste the entire world.
Therefore, we may look into the future with some confidence of an
equally secure and inappreciably enduring earth-life. And as Natural
Selection operates solely by and for the good of each being, all
corporeal and mental endowments will tend to progress toward
perfection.
When we contemplate a tangled bank, with innumerable plants of
diverse kinds, and many-voiced birds singing in concert, or waging
destruction on manifold insects that are flitting about, or the long,
slimy worm that has come up from its underground retreat, we are
lost in wonder and admiration, and can only reflect that these
elaborately constructed forms, so different from each other, and so

strangely and intricately dependent on each other, have all been
evolved by laws that act all around us. These are the laws of Growth
with Reproduction; Inheritance, which is almost implied by
reproduction; Variability from the action, direct and indirect, of the
conditions of life, and from use and disuse; a Ratio of Increase so
high as to lead to a Struggle for Existence, and as a consequence to
Natural Selection, or Survival of the Fittest, entailing thereby
Divergence of Character and the Extinction of less-improved forms.
And thus, from the war of nature, and from famine and death, have
arisen the higher mammalia, in which man, the summa summarum
of life, is included. He occupies the summit, toward which the efforts
of millions of buried ages seem to have been tending. There is a
grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, originally
breathed, by the operation of the natural laws, into one or a few
forms of life, and that, while the earth, in obedience to the fixed
principle of gravitation, has gone cycling on, endless forms, most
beautiful and most wonderful, have been, and are being, evolved
from so simple a beginning.

PALÆOLITHIC MEN ATTACKING CAVE BEAR.
Mammoth, Woolly Rhinoceros, Musk-Sheep and Irish Stag in Background.
While thus it has been shown that life has been progressive,
successive forms of life being the result of modification through
descent, those faring the best in the Struggle for Existence surviving,
by reason of some advantage, physical or otherwise, gained over
their competitors, yet little, bearing specially upon man, has been
expressed in this chapter. After he had acquired those intellectual
and moral faculties which largely distinguish him from the lower
animals in a state of nature, he would have been but little liable to
have his bodily structure modified through Natural Selection or any
other means, for man is enabled, through his mental faculties, “to
keep with an unchanged body in harmony with the changing
universe.” He has a most wonderful power of adapting his habits to

altered conditions of life. Tools, weapons and various devices are
invented by him for the procurement of food and bodily defence.
And when he migrates into a colder climate, he uses clothes, builds
sheds and makes fire, and by its aid cooks food that would
otherwise be indigestible. The lower animals, however, must have
their bodily structure modified in order to survive under greatly
changed conditions. They must be rendered stronger, or acquire
more effective teeth or claws, or both, if they would successfully
defend themselves from new enemies, or they must be reduced in
proportions, so as to escape detection and danger. When they
remove into colder climates they must become clothed in thicker fur,
or have their constitutions altered, for failure to be thus modified
must ultimately result in their ceasing to exist. But in the case of
man’s intellectual and moral faculties, as has been shown by
Wallace, it is widely different. These faculties are quite variable, and
there is reason to believe that the variations tend to be inherited.
Therefore, if they were formerly of high importance to palæolithic
man and his ape-like progenitors, they would have been perfected or
advanced through Natural Selection. But of the high importance of
the intellectual faculties there can be no question, for man owes to
them in a great measure his preëminent position in the world. It can
be seen that, in the rudest state of society, the individuals who were
the most sagacious, and who were the most skilful in the invention
of weapons or traps, and who were the best able to defend
themselves, would rear the greatest number of offspring, and that
the tribes which included the largest number of men possessed of
such superior endowments would increase in number and eventually
supplant the other tribes. Numbers depend primarily on the means
of subsistence, and this on the physical nature of the country, but in
a much higher degree upon the arts therein practised. As a tribe
increases and is victorious, it is often still further increased by the
absorption of other tribes, and after a time the tribes which are thus
absorbed into another tribe assume, as has been remarked by Mr.
Maine in his “Ancient Law,” that they are the co-descendants of the
same ancestors. Stature and strength in the men of a tribe are also
of importance in its success, and these are dependent in part upon

the character and the quantity of food that can be obtained. Men of
the Bronze Period in Europe were supplanted by a larger-handed
and more powerful race, but their success was probably due in a
much higher degree to their superiority in the arts. All that is known
by savages, as inferred from their traditions and from old
monuments, shows that from the most remote times successful
tribes have supplanted others. Relics of extinct tribes have been
found on the wild plains of America and on the isolated islands in the
Pacific Ocean. Civilized nations are everywhere at the present time
supplanting barbarous peoples, excepting where climate opposes a
fatal barrier, and they thus succeed in a great measure, though not
exclusively, through the arts, which are the products of the intellect.
With mankind, then, it is highly probable that the intellectual
faculties have been gradually perfected through Natural Selection.
Undoubtedly it would have been interesting to have traced the
development of each separate faculty from the state in which it
exists in the lower animals to that in which it exists in man, but this
would have been a task of no easy accomplishment. As soon,
however, as the progenitors of man became social, and this probably
occurred at a very early period, the advancement of the intellectual
faculties would have been aided and modified in an important
manner, for if one man in a tribe, more sagacious than his fellows,
had invented a new snare or a weapon, or other means of attack or
defence, the plainest self-interest, with no great help of reasoning
power, would have prompted the other members to have imitated
him, and thus all would have been profited. Habitual practice of each
new art must likewise in some slight degree strengthen the intellect.
If the new invention were an important one, the tribe would increase
in numbers, spread and supplant other tribes, and thus rendered
stronger numerically there would be a better chance of the birth of
other superior and inventive members. Should these last be so
fortunate as to leave children to inherit their mental superiority, the
chance of the birth of still more ingenious members would be
somewhat better, and in a very small tribe would be decidedly better.
That primeval man, or his ape-like progenitors, should have
become social, they must have acquired the same instinctive feelings

which impel other animals to live in a body, and they doubtless
exhibited the same general disposition. When separated from their
companions, for whom they would have felt some degree of love,
they would have experienced a feeling of uneasiness. They would
have warned each other of danger, and have given mutual aid in
attack or defence. All this implies some degree of sympathy, fidelity
and courage. Such social qualities, whose paramount importance to
the lower animals is undisputed, were doubtless acquired by the
progenitors of men in a similar manner, namely, through Natural
Selection, aided by inherited habit. In the never-ceasing wars of
savages, fidelity and courage are all-important, and certainly when
two tribes of primeval man, living in the same country, came into
competition, the one that contained the greatest number of
courageous, sympathetic and faithful members, who were ever
ready to warn each other of danger, and to assist and defend each
other, would without doubt succeed the best and conquer the other.
The advantage which disciplined soldiers have over undisciplined
hordes follows mainly from the confidence which each soldier has in
his comrades. Obedience is of the highest importance, for any form
of government is better than none. Selfish and contentious people
will not cohere, and without coherence nothing can be effected.
Thus, a tribe possessing these qualities in an eminent degree would
spread and be victorious over other tribes. But, in the course of
events, or all past history is a myth, this successful tribe would in its
turn be overcome by some other more highly-endowed tribe; and
thus would the social and moral qualities tend slowly to advance and
be diffused throughout the world.
Praise and the blame of our fellow-men are much more powerful
stimuli to the development of the social qualities. These virtues are
primarily due to the instinct of sympathy, and this instinct, like all
other social instincts, was doubtlessly acquired through Natural
Selection. How early man’s progenitors, in the course of their
development, became capable of feeling and being impelled by the
praise or blame of their fellow-men, we are unable to say. Even dogs
appreciate encouragement, praise and blame, and it would be
strange if such could not be predicated of beings higher in the scale.

The wildest savages feel the sentiment of glory. This is clearly shown
by their preservation of the trophies of their bravery, by their habit
of excessive boasting, and even by the extreme care they take of
their personal appearance and adornments. Unless, however, they
regarded the opinion of their comrades, such habits would be
without meaning and senseless. How far the savage experiences
remorse, is doubtful. He certainly feels shame and contrition for the
breach of some of the lesser rules of his tribe. It is true that remorse
is a deeply-hidden feeling, but it is hardly credible that a being who
will sacrifice his life rather than betray his tribe, or give himself up as
a prisoner rather than violate his parole, would not feel remorse,
though he might, if he failed in a duty which he held sacred, hide it
from view.
Primeval man must have been, at a very remote time, influenced
by the praise and blame of his fellows. That the members of the
same tribe would approve of conduct that appeared for the general
good, and reprobate such as seemed to carry with it evil, there can
be no question. To do good unto others, or to do unto others as you
would that they should do unto you, is the foundation-stone of
morality. It is, therefore, hardly possible to place too high an
estimate upon the importance of the love of praise and fear of blame
during rude, barbaric times, for a man, who was not impelled by any
profound instinctive feeling to sacrifice his life for the good of others,
but who was raised to such a noble action by a sense of glory, would
by his example excite a similar wish for glory in the bosoms of other
men, and would thereby engender and strengthen by exercise the
laudable feeling of admiration. With increased experience and
reason, those more remote consequences of his actions, such as
temperance, chastity, etc., which during his very early times were
utterly disregarded, would come to be highly esteemed or even held
sacred. And ultimately there would have been developed from the
social instincts a highly-complex sentiment which, largely guided by
the approbation of his fellow-men, and ruled by reason, self-interest,
and latterly by deep religious feelings, confirmed by teaching and
habit, would constitute his moral sense or conscience. Although a
high standard of morality gives but little if any advantage to each

individual man and his children over the other men of the same
tribe, yet it must be borne in mind that it is an advancement in the
standard of morality and an increase in the number of well-endowed
men that certainly give a telling advantage to a tribe over another,
for the tribe that includes many members who, from possessing in
an eminent degree the spirit of patriotism, fidelity, obedience,
courage and sympathy, and who were always prepared to give aid to
each other, and to sacrifice themselves for the common weal, would
be victorious over most other tribes. And this would be Natural
Selection. Tribes at all times throughout the world have supplanted
other tribes. Now, as morality is one element in their success, the
standard of morality and the number of well-endowed men will thus
everywhere tend to rise and increase.
Very difficult it is to form any judgment why one particular tribe
and not another has been successful in the Struggle for Existence
and has risen in the scale of civilization. Many savages are still in the
same condition of degradation as when first discovered. The
greatest part of mankind has never evinced the slightest desire that
their civil institutions should be improved. Progress is not, as we are
apt to consider, the normal rule in human society. Many concurrent
favorable conditions, far too complex to be followed out, seem to
determine human progress. A cool climate, it has been remarked, by
leading to industry and the various arts, has been indispensable
thereto, but if the climate has been too severe, as in the Arctic
regions, there is a check to continual progress. Pressed by hard
necessity, the Esquimaux have succeeded in many ingenious
inventions, but they can never attain, for the reason already
assigned, to any very great success. Nomadic habits, whether along
the shores of the sea, or over wide plains, or through dense tropical
forests, have in all cases proved detrimental. Perhaps, the
possession of some property, a fixed abode, and the union of many
families under a leader or chief, are indispensable requisites for
civilization, as such habits almost necessitate the cultivation of the
ground. From some such accident as the falling of the seeds of a
fruit-tree on a heap of refuse and producing an unusually fine variety
may probably have resulted the first steps in cultivation, for if the

fruit were profitable and good for food, it would be a very dull
intellect that could not readily perceive, especially among a people
that had given up a roving habit of life, the advantage which would
accrue from the planting of some more trees of a similar kind. They
would undoubtedly be led to cultivation for themselves by a simple
observation of the plan by which nature contrives in keeping up a
continuation of her many kinds of plants. Instead of dropping the
seeds upon the ground as nature is prone to do, and trusting to their
burial by accident or otherwise, seeing the advantage to be gained
by burying them out of the reach of noxious influences, whether of
climate or animal life, they would soon learn to take the matter of
planting under their own watchful care rather than leave it to the
seemingly thoughtless provision of nature. But the problem of the
first advance of palæolithic man toward civilization, is at present
much too difficult to be solved, for it involves the consideration of
certain elements which we know too little about, and their
disentanglement from others whose value is of recognized
significance in the domain of biological science.
While it has been shown how it has been possible for primeval
man to have acquired a moral sense or conscience, yet it must not
be forgotten that the lower animals, at least such as have come
under the civilizing influence of man, have also come into possession
of the same highly complex sentiment which has been of such
inestimable service to man for his progressive advancement. Other
faculties, such as the powers of imagination, wonder, curiosity, an
undefined sense of beauty, a tendency to imitation, and the love of
excitement or novelty, have also been of immense importance in this
direction, for they could not fail to have led to the most capricious
changes of customs and fashions. Caprice, it has been rather oddly
claimed by a recent writer, is “one of the most remarkable and
typical differences between savages and brutes.” It is not only
possible to perceive how it is that man is capricious, but the lower
animals, as has been previously shown, are capricious in their
affections, aversions and sense of beauty. And there is good reason
to suspect that they love novelty for its own sake. Self-
consciousness, individuality, abstraction, general ideas, etc., which

have been held by several recent writers as making the sole and
complete distinction between man and the brutes, seem useless
subjects for discussion, since hardly any two authors agree in their
definitions of these high faculties. In man, such faculties could not
have been fully developed until his mental powers had advanced to
a high state of perfection, and this implies the use of a highly-
developed language. No one supposes that one of the lower animals
reflects whence he comes or whither he goes, or what is death or
what is life, but can one feel sure that an old dog with an excellent
memory, and some power of imagination as shown by his dreams,
never reflects on his past pleasures in the chase? And this would be
a form of self-consciousness. On the contrary, as Büchner ably
remarks, how little can the hard-worked wife of an Australian savage
who scarcely uses any abstract words and whose ability to count
does not extend beyond four, exert her self-consciousness, or reflect
on the origin, nature and aim of her own existence. That animals
retain their mental individuality is unquestioned, for when any voice
awakens a train of old associations in the mind of some favorite dog,
as in the case of my dog Frisky, already referred to, he must have
retained his mental individuality, although every atom of his brain
had probably undergone change more than once during the five or
six years he lived in my family. Animals have some ideas of numbers.
The crow has been known to count as far as the number six, and a
dog I once had knew as well as I did when Saturday came. The
sense of beauty, which has been declared peculiar to man, is innate
in birds. Certain bright colors and certain sounds, when in harmony,
excite in them pleasure as they do in man. The taste for the
beautiful, at least so far as female beauty is concerned, is not of a
special nature in the human mind, for it differs widely in the different
races of man, and is not quite the same even in the different nations
of the same race. If we are to judge from the hideous ornaments
and the equally hideous music admired by most savages, it might be
urged that their æsthetic faculty was less highly developed than it is
in some species of birds. No animal, it is obvious, would be capable
of admiring the nocturnal heaven, a beautiful landscape, or refined
music. And this should not be wondered at, for such high tastes,

dependent as they are upon culture and complex associations, are
not even enjoyed by barbarous or by uneducated persons.
Seeing that man in a state of nature has no preëminence above
the lower animals so far as his mental and moral qualities are
concerned, and in many instances ranks far below the so-called
brute, let us examine fora short time his religious nature. No
evidence exists to show that man was aboriginally endowed with the
ennobling belief in the existence of an Omnipotent God. On the
contrary, ample evidence, not from hasty travellers, but from men
who have long resided with savages, can be adduced to show that
numerous races have existed, and still exist, who have no idea of
one or more gods, and who have no words in their languages to
express such an idea. If under the term religion is included the belief
in unseen or spiritual agencies, the case is entirely different, for this
belief seems to be almost universal with the less civilized races. Nor
is it difficult to understand how it originated. With the development
of the imagination, wonder and curiosity, and of a moderate power
of reasoning, man would naturally have craved to understand what
was going on around him, and even have vaguely speculated on his
own existence. According to McLennan man must, in his efforts to
arrive at some explanation of the phenomena of life, feign for
himself. Judging from the universality of this life, the same author
remarks that “the simplest hypothesis, and the first to occur to men,
seems to have been that natural phenomena are ascribable to the
presence in animals, plants and things, and in the forces of nature,
of such spirits prompting to action as men are conscious they
themselves possess.” Probably, as has been clearly shown by Tyler,
dreams may have first given rise to the notion of spirits. Savages do
not readily discriminate between subjective and objective
phenomena. When a savage dreams, the figures which appear in his
vision are believed to have come from a distance and to stand over
him, or the soul of the dreamer goes out on a journey and returns
with a remembrance of what has been seen. That tendency in
savages to imagine that natural objects and agencies are animated
by living or spiritual beings may be illustrated by a little fact which I
have frequently noticed. Standing on the corner of a street, waiting

for a closed snow-sweeper, which was driven by electricity, to pass,
my attention was directed to a young horse that was geared to a
hansom. The horse was at rest, and its driver, evidently awaiting
some one, sat upon the box. Upon the appearance of the sweeper
the horse reared, turned his face directly toward the object of his
fear, pawed the pavement in the most impatient manner possible,
and then looked wistfully and pleadingly at his master, as though
imploring protection from some fearful and gigantic monster.
Another sweeper passed while I was still in waiting, and the poor
animal went through the same trying and fearful ordeal as before.
He must, I think, have reasoned in a rapid and unconscious manner,
that movement without any apparent cause indicated the presence
of some strange living agent, which was about to do him some
serious physical harm. Belief in spiritual agencies would thus easily
pass into a belief in the existence of one or more gods, for savages
would naturally ascribe to spirits the same passions, the same line of
vengeance or simple form of justice, and the same affections which
they themselves experienced.
Religious devotion is a highly complex feeling. Love, complete
submission to an exalted and mysterious superior, a strong sense of
dependence, fear, reverence, gratitude, hope for the future and
other elements enter into its composition. No being could experience
so complex an emotion unless his intellectual and moral faculties had
attained a moderately high level. Some approach to this high state
of mind is visible in the profound love of a dog for his master, for it is
associated with complete submission, some fear, reverence,
gratitude and perhaps other feelings. A dog’s behavior towards his
master, after a long absence, is widely different from that which he
shows towards his fellows, for his transports of joy in the latter case
are less intense, and his every action savors of a mere sense of
equality. But upon his master, as Prof. Braubach goes so far as to
maintain, he looks as on a god.
These high mental faculties, which first led man to believe in
unseen spiritual agencies, and subsequently in fetishism, polytheism
and monotheism, would infallibly lead him, as long as his reasoning
powers remained at a very low level, to various strange superstitions

and customs, many of which, such as the sacrifice of human beings
to a blood-loving god and the trial of innocent persons by the ordeal
of poison or fire, are too terrible to contemplate. It is well, however,
to reflect occasionally on these superstitions, for they show us what
an infinite debt of gratitude we owe to improved reason, science and
accumulated knowledge. How much better is the life of civilized man
than that of the savage, for as Lubbock has well remarked, “it is not
too much to say that the horrible dread of unknown evil hangs like a
thick cloud over savage life, and embitters every pleasure.”
From the opinions advanced, it is evident that the belief in God
has been the ultimate outcome of belief in unseen spiritual agencies.
There has been a gradual leading up through fetishism and
polytheism to monotheism. If religion implies belief in unseen
agencies, as well as belief in a personal agency in the universe
strong enough to influence conduct in any degree, then it is obvious
that there has been a progressive advancement in religious thought,
each succeeding form of religion by its superior advantages over its
predecessor tending to supplant it wherever and whenever its
beneficent influences are felt. It is true that fetishism and polytheism
still prevail among rude, uncultured peoples, as well as the worship
of false deities and prophets, but with the spread of the civilizing
and elevating influence of Christianity these religions in the fitness of
time will disappear. Christianity, from its foundation in Judaism, has
throughout been a religion of sacrifice and sorrow. It has been a
religion of blood and tears, and yet one of profoundest happiness to
its votaries. While fakirs hang on hooks, and pagans cut themselves
and even their children, for the sake of propitiating diabolical deities,
yet Christianity, which has its roots in Judaism, has no need for such
practices. It is par excellence the religion of sorrow, because it
reaches to truer and deeper levels of our spiritual nature, and
therefore has capabilities both of sorrow and joy which are
presumably non-existent except in civilized man. They are the
sorrows and joys which arise from the fully-developed consciousness
of sin against a God of Love, as distinguished from propitiation of
malignant spirits. These joys and sorrows are wholly spiritual, not

merely physical. “Thou desirest no sacrifice.” God’s only sacrifice at
the hands of sinful man is a troubled spirit.
Estimated by the influence which He has exerted on mankind,
there can be no question, even from a secular point of view, that
Christ is much the greatest man who has ever lived. That the
revolution which His teachings have effected in human life is
immeasurable and unparalleled by any other movement in history is
unquestioned. Though most nearly approached by the religion of the
Jews, of which it is a development, so that it may be regarded as of
a piece with it, it is evident that this whole system of religion is so
immeasurably in advance of all others that it may be truthfully said,
if it had not been for the Jews, the human race would have had no
religion worthy of serious consideration. Had it not been for this
religion man’s spiritual side would not have been developed in
civilized life. And although there are numberless individuals who are
all unconscious of its development in themselves, yet these have
been influenced to an enormous extent by the religious atmosphere
by which they are surrounded.
Not only is Christianity so immeasurably in advance of all other
religions, but it is no less of every other system of thought that has
ever been promulgated in regard to what is moral and spiritual.
Neither philosophy, science nor poetry has ever produced results in
thought, conduct or beauty in any degree comparable with it. What
has science or philosophy done for the thought of mankind
compared with what has been done by the single doctrine, “God is
love?” The Story of the Cross, from its commencement in prophetic
aspiration to its culmination in the Gospel, is preëminently the most
magnificent presentation in literature. Only to a man wholly destitute
of religious perception can Christianity fail to appear the greatest
exhibition of the beautiful, the sublime, and of all else that appeals
to our spiritual nature, which has ever been known upon the earth.
It is not only adapted to men of the highest culture, but the most
remarkable thing about it is its perfect adaptation to all sorts and
conditions of men. Its problems, historical and philosophical, open
up to you worlds of material, over which you may spend your life

with the same interminable interest as the student meets in the
fields of natural science.
Whatever our theory of the origin of man, there can be no doubt
that we all feel that his intellectual part is higher than the animal;
and that the moral is higher than the intellectual, whatever our
theory of either may be; and that the spiritual is higher than the
moral, whatever our theory of religion may be. It is what is
understood by his moral, and still more by his spiritual qualities, that
make up what is called his character, and, astonishing to say, it is
character that tells in the long run. Morality and spirituality are two
different things, for a man may be highly moral in conduct without
being in any degree spiritual in nature, and the reverse, though to a
less extent. Objectively, the same distinction subsists between
morals and religion. Intellectual pleasures are more satisfying and
enduring than sensual, or even sensuous; and spiritual, to those
who have experienced them, than intellectual, an objective fact,
abundantly testified to by those who have had experience, which
seems to indicate that the spiritual nature of man is the highest part
of man—the culminating point of his being. That there will always be
materialists and spiritualists, as Renan says, is probably true,
inasmuch as it will always be observable on the one hand that there
is no thought without brain, while, on the other hand, the instincts
of man will always aspire to higher beliefs. If religion is true, and life
is a state of probation, this is just what ought to be. It is not
probable that the materialistic position, which is discredited even by
philosophy, is due simply to custom and a want of imagination. Else
why the inextinguishable instincts which we have thus shown to
exist?

ERA OF MIND AND HEART.
Things as They Will Exist in a Future Earth-Life.
Evolution, not only of the earth, but of its organic machinery, by
natural causes, is now no longer doubted. That this has taken place
by degrees is equally unquestioned. Now, if there is a Deity, the fact
is certainly of the nature of a first principle, and it must be first of all
first principles. No one can dispute this, nor can any one dispute the
necessary conclusion that, if there be a Deity, he is knowable, if
knowable at all, by intuition and not by reason. From its very nature,
as a little thought is sufficient to show, reason is utterly incapable of
adjudicating on the subject, for it is a process of inferring from the
known to the unknown. It would be against reason itself to suppose
that Deity, even if He exists, can be known by reason. He must be
known, if knowable at all, by intuition. If there is a Deity, then it

seems to be in some indefinite degree more probable that He should
impart a Revelation than that He should not have done so. As a
mere matter of evidence, a sudden revelation might be much more
convincing than a gradual one, but it would be quite out of analogy
with causation in nature. Besides, a gradual one might be given
easily, and of demonstrative value, as by making prophecies of
historical events, scientific discoveries and other things so clear as to
be unmistakable. But a demonstrative revelation has not been made,
and there may well be good reasons why it should not have been
made. If there are such reasons, as, for example, our state of
probation, we can well see “that the gradual unfolding of a plan of
revelation, from earliest dawn of history to the end of the world, is
much preferable to a sudden manifestation sufficiently late in the
world’s history to be historically attested for all subsequent time.”
Gradual evolution, as has been said before, is in analogy with God’s
other work. If Revelation has been of a progressive character, then it
follows that it must have been so not only historically, but
intellectually, morally and spiritually, for in such sequence could it be
always adapted to the advancing conditions of the human race.
Thus it will be seen that all through the ages some mighty
influence has been at work, directly or indirectly, in preparing this
earth by slow and gradual changes for a steadily progressive
succession of vegetable and animal life. That life best fitted to meet
new and changing conditions of environment being preserved by a
process of natural selection. And from a few primordial types, far
simpler than the lowest of existing structureless moners, or from
some living protoplasmic mass, elaborated by some form of energy
acting upon inorganic nature, there have been evolved in the
millions of years of earth-life our existing flora and fauna. Man, the
pinnacle of animal life, has come up through the life that preceded
him, and bears in the history of his development from the ovum to
the adult state the line of his descent. Not only has his physical
nature been evolved through the action of natural laws impressed
upon living matter by Deity, but that subtle principle, termed mind,
which has attained such a wonderful growth in his civilized condition,
is but the outcome of the mind of a long line of life antecedent to his

appearance on the globe. His moral nature was similarly acquired,
and most probably in the manner already explained. Palæolithic
man, like the Australian of to-day, was, as has been shown, but little
superior in intelligence to some of the animals with whom he was
contemporaneous. He lived the life of the mere animal, and as an
animal could be said to have had no preëminence above a beast.
Like the latter, he was a living, breathing frame, or body of life; a
living, but not an everliving, soul. In time, as conditions became
favorable, he passed into the moral stage of his being, but not
without increased intellectuality, and would thus have continued, but
going on and adding to his mental and moral possessions, had not
Deity, in the fitness of time, prepared the way through Christ,
whereby his corruptible nature should be made incorruptible and
immortal. Unless man is “born of the spirit” he cannot inherit the
kingdom of God. He must be “changed into spirit,” put on
incorruptibility and immortality of body, or he will be physically
incapable of retaining the honor, glory and power of the kingdom
forever, or even during Christ’s reign of a thousand years upon
earth.
That there is a distinction between a living soul and a spiritual
body cannot be questioned. Speaking about body, the apostle Paul
says, “there is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body, but he
does not content himself with simply declaring this truth, but goes
further and proves it by quoting the language of Moses, saying, “for
so it is written, the first man Adam was made into a living soul;” and
then adding, “the last Adam into a spirit giving life.” And in another
place, speaking of the latter, he says of Him, “now the Lord is the
spirit. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror, the
glory of the Lord, are changed into His image from glory into glory,
as by the Lord the Spirit.” Therefore, the proof of the apostle’s
proposition, that there is a natural body as distinct from a spiritual
body, lies in the testimony that “Adam was made into a living soul,”
showing that he considered a natural, or animal body, and a living
soul, as one and the same thing. If he did not, then there was no
proof in the quotation of what he affirmed. Mortality, then, is life
manifested through a corruptible body, and immortality is life

manifested through an incorruptible body. Hence, the necessity laid
down in the saying of the apostle, “this corruptible body must put on
incorruption, and this mortal put on immortality,” before death can
be “swallowed up in victory,”—a doctrine of “life and incorruptibility”
that was new to the Greeks and Romans, and brought to light only
through the gospel of the kingdom and name of Jesus Christ. To
them it was foolishness, and to many at the present day incredible,
because they do not understand the glad tidings of the age to come.
God could have created all things upon a spiritual or incorruptible
basis at once, but in that case the globe would have been filled with
men and women equal to the angels in nature, power and intellect,
and hence would have been without a history, and its population
characterless. And this would not have been according to His plan,
for in it the animal must precede the spiritual just as surely as the
acorn must precede the oak. The Bible has to do with things and not
with imaginations; with bodies and not phantasms; with living souls
of every species; with corporeal beings of other worlds, and with
incorruptible and undying men, but is as silent as the grave about
such souls as men pretend to cure. For the sons of Adam to become
sons of God, they must be the subjects of an adoption, which is
attainable only by a divinely appointed means. It must be by a
process of selection. “Since by a man came death, by a man also
came a resurrection of dead persons. For as in the Adam they all
die, so also in the Christ shall they all be made alive. But every one
in his order. Christ the first fruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at
His coming.” Here it is obvious that the apostle is not writing of all
the individuals of the human race, but only such that become the
subject of a pardon of life. It is true that all men do die, but it is not
true that they are all the subject of pardon. Those who are pardoned
are “the many,” who are sentenced to live forever. The sentence to
pardon of life is through Jesus Christ who in pouring out His blood
upon the cross, was made a sacrifice for sin. “He was delivered for
our offences, and raised again for our justification,” that is, for the
pardon of those who believe the gospel. As it is written, “he that
believeth the gospel, and is baptized, shall be saved.” Hence, “the
obedience of faith” is made the condition of righteousness, and this

obedience implies the existence of a “law of faith,” as attested by
that of Moses, which is “the law of works.” Having believed the
gospel and been baptized, such a person is required to “walk worthy
of the vocation,” or calling, “wherewith he has been called,” that by
so doing he may be “accounted worthy” of being “born of spirit,”
that he may become “spirit,” or a spiritual body, and so enter the
kingdom of God, crowned with “glory, honor, incorruptibility and life.”
From all the above, it must be obvious to the unbiassed mind, that
all will not arise to newness of life, “for as many of you, as have
been baptized into Christ have put on Christ, and if ye be Christ’s,
then are ye the seed of Abraham, and heirs according to the
promise.” When they have been thus baptized, then they have
received the spirit of adoption, or have been elected into God’s
family, and then they can address God as their Father who is in
heaven.
Thus adopted into God’s family through faith in Jesus Christ, it
must not be supposed that they have attained to that perfect
condition of knowing all that is to be known. New glories will
continually open up to their admiring vision, and new facts be
revealed through the eternity of futurity. Man will carry his earth-
acquired knowledge into the other world, and little by little will he
add to his fund. Those who have made the best of their time in their
probationary existence, will rank as much above their fellows in the
heaven-life as they did in the earth-life, and like the others will reach
up to higher acquirements. There will be no equalization of talents,
capacities and possessions, but each will be satisfied with his own,
and all will endeavor to be as like unto Christ as the conditions of
their heavenly environment will permit. There will be grades of
ability and character in the new life, but all of the very highest
standard when measured by what prevails in the earth-life. This is
the teaching of the Scriptures. “There is one glory of the sun, and
another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one
star differeth from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of
the dead.”
Now as to the part that animals and plants shall figure in the new
existence. Revelation, as has been seen, was given to man. This

does not imply that the lower forms of life were not made “partakers
of the divine nature.” When man was placed upon this earth, or
rather when in the sequence of events, which was brought about by
the prescribed scheme of Divinity, he appeared upon the earth, he
was given the control of all the creatures of God’s hands, to rule
them as his judgment seemed best. They were a necessary part of
the plan of creation. God gave the man directions concerning them,
and what they are, and we refer to the domesticated species
especially, they have thus been made through man’s wise, intelligent
and thoughtful selection. This has been the instrument through
which God has worked in building up a history and a character for
the humbler works of His hands. That they shall pass into the future
life with him, at least such as have shown their fitness to endure,
there can be no doubt in the mind of any one who pauses a few
brief moments in the rush and turmoil of everyday life and considers
the matter with all due seriousness. All existence, as we have
elsewhere claimed, is a unit. All life, like all love, is divine. There can
nothing exist that does not contain some sort of development of
soul. There is no escape from this assertion. Instead of isolating
ourselves then from the humbler creatures of God’s workmanship,
let us recognize them as our kin and include them in the grand
scheme of redemption, and as partakers with us in the future state
of Divine Love and in higher and endlessly higher development and
progress.

T
MAN’S PREËMINENCE.
here is a popular tradition that somewhere in the Scriptures we
are taught that of all living denizens of the earth, man alone
possesses a spirit, and that he alone survives in spirit after the
death of the material body. Were this the truth, no room would exist
for argument to those who profess belief in a literal rendering of the
Scriptures, and who base their faith upon that literal belief. However
much such a statement might seem to controvert all ideas of
benevolence, justice and common-sense, such believers would feel
bound to accept it on trust, and to wait a future time for its full
comprehension.
Even the possession of reason is denied by many persons to
animals, their several actions being ascribed to the power of instinct,
and it is therefore not the least bit strange that all but a
comparatively few should believe that when an animal dies, its life-
principle dies too. The animating power, they claim, is annihilated,
while the body is resolved into its constituent elements so as to take
form in other bodies.
Two passages of Scripture, one in the Psalms and the other in
Ecclesiastes, are almost entirely, if not wholly, responsible for this
belief. The former, which runs in the authorized version,
“Nevertheless, man being in honor, abideth not; he is like the beasts
that perish,” is that which is generally quoted as decisive of the
whole question. “Man, being in honor, hath no understanding, but is
compared to the beasts that perish” is another translation, but
differs not materially from the other. The second passage referred to
from Ecclesiastes, reads: “Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth
upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the
earth?” Now, it is upon the strength of these two passages that we
are called upon to believe that when a beast dies its life, like that of
an expired lamp, goes out forever. Nothing is more dangerous in the

exposition of Scripture than attempting to explain a passage,
however simple it may seem to be, without reference to the original
text, for the translator may have mistaken the true sense of the
words, or he may have inadequately expressed their signification, or,
owing to a change in meaning, the words of a passage may now
bear an exactly contrary sense to that conveyed when they were
first written.
But laying aside this point for the present, and accepting the
passage as it stands, as well as the literal meaning of the words as
generally understood, there can be no doubt that we must believe
that beasts are not possessed of immortal life. If, however, we are to
take the literal sense of the Bible, and no other, we are equally
forced to believe that man has no life after death. The book of
Psalms is full of examples. Let us take a few from the many that
might be given: “In death there is no remembrance of thee: in the
grave, who shall give thee thanks?” “The dead praise not the Lord,
neither any that go down into silence.” “His breath goeth forth, he
returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.” Taken
solely in their literal sense, there can be no doubt of their meaning.
Nothing more gloomy, dreary or more despondent can be found in
the entire range of heathen literature than these passages, and
others that might be quoted from the inspired Psalmist, in the
contemplation of death. In the very book from which the single
passage was taken, which is claimed to deny immortality to the
lower animals, there are five times as many passages that proclaim
the same sad end to the life of man. We are distinctly and definitely
told therein that those who have died have no remembrance of God,
and cannot praise Him. Death has been spoken of as the “land of
forgetfulness”—the place of darkness, where all man’s thoughts
perish. Certainly no more than this can be said of the “beasts that
perish.”
Other holy writers make similar affirmations. Speaking of mankind
in general, who “dwell in houses of clay,” Job says: “They are
destroyed from morning to evening; they perish forever, without any
regarding it.” Again he says, and the passage is more definite than
the preceding: “As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away, so he

that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more.” And still
again: “Man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost,
and where is he? As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood
decayeth and drieth up: so man lieth down, and riseth not.”
Chapters III and X tell of the piteous lamentations of Job over his
life, wherein he complains that he ever was born, that existence was
ever given to him, that he was ever taken from a state of absolute
nonentity, and that even death itself can bring no relief to his
miseries except extinction.
Turning to Ecclesiastes, in which book occurs the solitary passage
which is held to disprove a future existence to the lower animals,
there are passages which are even more emphatic as to the
immortality of man. Read what is declared: “I said in my heart
concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest
them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts. For
that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one
thing befalleth them. As the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they
have all one breath, so that a man has no preëminence over a
beast: for all is vanity. All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and
all turn to dust again.” Further it is said: “For the living know that
they shall die, but the dead know not anything, neither have they
any more a reward, for the memory of them is forgotten.”
“Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there
is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave
whither thou goest.” Literally interpreted, no one can doubt the
import of these words from Ecclesiastes, for they definitely state
that, as regards a future life, there is no distinction between man
and beast, and that when they die they all go to the same place. It
is also distinctly stated that after death man can do no work, know
nothing, nor receive any reward. Were we to deduce our ideas of the
condition of man after death from the irrepressibly sad and gloomy
passages from Job and Ecclesiastes, most deplorable and hopeless
would be the very thought of dissolution. But we do not accept them
in this light. They are written symbolically, and there underlies them
a spiritual sense. It is not, however, the latter sense that concerns us
at present, but the literal meaning of the translation, and, according

to that literal meaning, if we take two texts to prove that beasts
have no future life, we are compelled by no less than fourteen
passages to believe that man, in common with beasts, has no better
prospect. We have no right to say which passages are to be taken
literally, and which parabolically, but must apply the same test to all
alike, and treat all in a similar manner.
All classical readers are familiar with that wonderful eleventh book
of Homer’s Odyssey, called the Necyomanteia, or Invocation of the
Dead, in which Ulysses is depicted as descending into the regions of
departed spirits for the purpose of invoking them and obtaining
advice as to his future adventures. Dreary, and horrible indeed, are
the revelations which the whole of the strange history makes of the
condition of the future life. All is wild and dark, and hunger, thirst
and discontent prevail. Nothing is heard of elysian fields, where
piety, wisdom and virtue abound. Gloom, misery and vain regrets for
earth pervade the entire episode. When is considered this heathen
poet’s ideas concerning the future state of man, it is no wonder that
sensual pleasures should be held as the principal object of his life
when he is to look forward to such a future, a future from which
neither wisdom, nor virtue, nor piety could save him, and where
there is nothing but an eternity of gloom, remorse and hopeless
despondency. Sad as this picture is, yet it is far brighter than that of
the Psalmist, the Preacher, or Job. Those who have passed into the
world of spirits still retain their individuality after death, being
distinguished in the spirit as they had been in the flesh. Memory
survives the body’s death. Naught of their earthly career is
forgotten. They still have an interest in their friends that remain in
the body whom they love, and over whose well-being they
unceasingly watch. No such consolation, as has been described,
exists in the future state of man if the passages of Scripture that
have been quoted are taken in a literal sense. Man, in that event,
passes at death into a place of darkness, forgetfulness and silence,
where there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, and
where even his very thoughts perish. No other interpretation, if
taken literally, can be put upon them, for the statements are too
explicit to be explained away or softened.

In the outward sense of their writings the Psalmist, Job and the
Preacher are on an equality with Horace in their absolute unbelief in
a future existence, and in a consequent desire to snatch what
fleeting pleasures they can from earth before the inexorable law of
fate consigns them to dark oblivion. Startling as it may seem to
compare the teachings of a Greek idolater and of a Latin Epicurean
heathen with those of sacred writers, yet it is still more startling to
show that the teachings of the Epicurean sensualist are not a whit
wiser than those of the Scriptural writer, while those of the Greek
poet are very much better. Such, however, is the fact, and, if we are
to be bound by the literal interpretation of the Scriptures, there is no
possibility of denying it without doing violence to reason and
common-sense.
We are now brought face to face with the point previously
mentioned. Does the authorized version give a full and correct
interpretation of the original? It is claimed that it does not. The word
“perish,” it is said, does not occur at all in the Hebrew text, nor is
even the idea expressed. No such translation as “beasts that perish,”
which appears twice in our version, is justified by the Hebrew, the
words of the original implying “dumb beasts.” The idea of perishing,
in the sense of annihilation, does not seem to be implied. Let us take
the Jewish Bible, which is acknowledged to be the best and closest
translation in the English language, and examine it. Both in verses
12 and 20 of Psalm XLIX, where the passage occurs, the rendering
reads: “Man that is in honor, and understandeth this not, is like the
beasts that are irrational.” As an alternative reading for “irrational,”
the word “dumb” is given in a footnote. A somewhat similar reading
is found in the Septuagint, which, according to Brunton, runs as
follows: “Man that is in honor understands not; he is compared to
the senseless cattle, and is like them.” In Wycliffe’s Bible, which is a
translation from the Vulgate, the passage is rendered: “A man
whanne he was in honour understood not; he is comparisoned to
unwise beestis, and is maad lijk to tho.” The “Douay” Bible, made by
the English Roman Catholic College of Douay, and which is the
version accepted by that branch of the Church in England, renders
the passage: “Man, when he was in honor, did not understand; he

hath been compared to senseless beasts and made like to them.”
Numerous other translations might be adduced, and it is safe to say
that scarcely any of them imply the idea of perishing in the sense of
being reduced to nothing. Even supposing that the word “perish” is
translated correctly, it does not therefore follow that annihilation is
meant. Take the tenth verse of the same Psalm in our authorized
version: “For he seeth that wise men die, and likewise the fool and
the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others.” Surely
no sensible, intelligent person would construe this passage into a
declaration that the wise and fool and brutish had no existence after
the death of the body.
That the last verse of the Psalm is a summary of the whole poem,
seems not improbable. A vivid picture of the true object of man’s life
in this world is drawn by the Psalmist, and also of his tendency to
lose sight thereof. In it he sets forth the shortness of human
existence, and shows that neither riches, station in life, nor fame,
which appertain to the mere earthly career of man, can endure after
his death. He, therefore, reasonably concludes that men who fix
their hearts upon these earthly vanities ignore the honor of their
manhood, and degrade themselves to the plane of the dumb beasts,
whose operations are, as far as we know, restricted to this present
world.
From what has been adduced it will at once be evident that the
idea that beasts are said by the Psalmist to have no future life may
be dismissed from our minds, and that the passage may be rejected
as totally irrelevant to the subject. This is of the greatest
importance, as the passage in question is the only one which even
appears to make any definite statement as to the condition of the
lower animals after death. Every reasonable person will now see
how essential it is that the true meaning of the Hebrew text should
be known, and that the Psalmist should not be charged with the
introduction of a doctrine to which, whether true or false, he makes
not the slightest reference.
Having settled beyond the possibility of refutation the true
meaning implied by the “beasts that perish,” we will now turn to the
passage in Ecclesiastes, which, as has been seen, is the only one

which contains any direct reference to the future of the lower orders
of animal existence: “Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth
upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the
earth?”—exclaimeth the Preacher. Here we have an admission that,
whether the spirit ascend or descend, both man and beasts do have
spirits, and these are undoubtedly the same in essence, for the
Hebrew word is identical is both cases. In the Jewish Bible the
rendering is verbatim the same as that of our authorized version.
Read, instead of an isolated verse, the entire passage:—
“I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men,
that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they
themselves are beasts.
“For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even
the one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other;
yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preëminence
above a beast: for all is vanity.
“All go to one place; all are of the same dust, and all turn to dust
again.
“Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit
of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?
“Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better than that a man
should rejoice in his own works; for that is his portion; for who shall
bring him to see what shall be after him?”
Every page of Ecclesiastes breathes of the self-reproach of the
Preacher for a wasted life. Speaking from his own sad, bitter
experience, he shows that riches, glory, pleasure and even wisdom
are nothing but utter emptiness. The same theme pervades the
forty-ninth Psalm, but the Psalmist treats it with grave solemnity,
admonishing his hearers of the shortness of human life, and showing
that if a man forgets the glory of his manhood, made in the image of
God, he puts himself on the level of the dumb brutes. Though
reaching the same conclusion, yet the Preacher views the subject
from a different standpoint. Employing biting sarcasm rather than
solemn warning, he exposes the vanity of all worldly and selfish
pleasures, and the miserable fate that awaits the voluptuary, and

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