In Search of the Miraculous

And, at the same time, humanity as a whole can never escape from nature, for, even

in struggling against nature man acts in conformity with her purposes. The evolution

of large masses of humanity is opposed to nature's purposes. The evolution of a

certain small percentage may be in accord with nature's purposes. Man contains

within him the possibility of evolution. But the evolution of humanity as a whole, that

is, the development of these possibilities in all men, or in most of them, or even in a

large number of them, is not necessary for the purposes of the earth or of the

planetary world in general, and it might, in fact, be injurious or fatal. There exist,

therefore, special forces (of a planetary character) which oppose the evolution of

large masses of humanity and keep it at the level it ought, to be.

"For instance, the evolution of humanity beyond a certain point, or, to speak more

correctly, above a certain percentage, would be fatal for the moon. The moon at

present feeds on organic life, on humanity. Humanity is a part of organic life; this means that humanity is food for the moon. If all men were to become too intelligent they would not want to be eaten by the moon.

"But, at the same time, possibilities of evolution exist, and they may be developed

in separate individuals with the help of appropriate knowledge and methods. Such development can take place only in the interests of the man himself against, so to

speak, the interests and forces of the

planetary world. The man must understand this: his evolution is necessary only to

himself. No one else is interested in it. And no one is obliged or intends to help him.

On the contrary, the forces which oppose the evolution of large masses of humanity

also oppose the evolution of individual men. A man must outwit them. And one man

can outwit them, humanity cannot. You will understand later on that all these

obstacles are very useful to a man; if they did not exist they would have to be created

intentionally, because it is by overcoming obstacles that man develops those qualities

he needs.

"This is the basis of the correct view of human evolution. There is no compulsory,

mechanical evolution. Evolution is the result of conscious struggle. Nature does not

need this evolution; it does not want it and struggles against it. Evolution can be

necessary only to man himself when he realizes his position, realizes the possibility of

changing this position, realizes that he has powers that he does not use, riches that he

does not see. And, in the sense of gaining possession of these powers and riches,

evolution is possible. But if all men, or most of them, realized this and desired to obtain what belongs to them by right of birth, evolution would again become

impossible. What is possible for individual man is impossible for the masses.

"The advantage of the separate individual is that he is very small and that, in the

economy of nature, it makes no difference whether there is one mechanical man more

or less. We can easily understand this correlation of magnitudes if we imagine the

correlation between a microscopic cell and our own body. The presence or absence of

one cell will change nothing in the life of the body. We cannot be conscious of it, and

it can have no influence on the life and functions of the organism. In exactly the same

way a separate individual is too small to influence the life of the cosmic organism to

which he stands in the same relation (with regard to size) as a cell stands to our own

organism. And this is precisely what makes his 'evolution' possible; on this are based

his 'possibilities.'

"In speaking of evolution it is necessary to understand from the outset that no

mechanical evolution is possible. The evolution of man is the evolution of his

consciousness. And 'consciousness' cannot evolve unconsciously. The evolution of man is the evolution of his will, and 'will' cannot evolve involuntarily. The evolution,

of man is the evolution of his power of doing, and 'doing' cannot be the result of

things which 'happen.'

"People do not know what man is. They have to do with a very complex machine,

far more complex than a railway engine, a motorcar, or an aeroplane—but they know

nothing, or almost nothing, about the construction, working, or possibilities of this

machine; they do not even understand its simplest functions, because they do not

know the purpose of these functions. They vaguely imagine that a man should learn

to control his machine, just as he has to learn to control a railway engine, a

motorcar, or an aeroplane, and that incompetent handling of the human machine is

just as dangerous as incompetent handling of any other complex machine. Everybody

understands this in relation to an aeroplane, a motorcar, or a railway engine. But it is

very rarely that anyone takes this into account in relation to man in general or to

himself in particular. It is considered right and legitimate to think that nature has