And yet the advance of the different functions is not altogether
successive. Muscle and nerve do not wait for digestion and
reproduction to show signs of halting before they begin to advance.
They all advance at once. But the progress of reproduction and
digestion is most rapid at first, and it appears as if they would
outrun the others. But in the ascending series the others follow
after, and soon overtake and pass by them. And these lower
functions, when out-marched, do not lag behind, but keep in touch
with the others, forming the rear-guard and supply-train of the
army. And notice that each organ holds the predominance about as
long as it shows the power of rapid improvement. The length of its
reign is pretty closely proportional to its capacity of development.
The digestive system reaches that limit early, the muscular system
is capable of indefinitely higher complexity, as we see in our hand.
But the muscular system has nearly or quite reached its limit. The
body had seen its day of dominance before man arrived on the globe.
But where is the limit to man's mental or moral powers? Every
upward step in knowledge, wisdom, and righteousness only opens our
eyes to greater heights, before unperceived and still to be
attained. These capacities, even to our dim vision, are evidently
capable of an indefinite, perhaps infinite, development.
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