The Effect of Evolution on the Nation

History has proved that the causes of evolution and change in morals and inclination, in traditions and customs, are very many indeed, whether in individuals and milieus or in nations and peoples. They are without doubt the result of many trials and numerous experiments, learned through the collisions, problems, and misfortunes that befall individuals and communities; it is these that refine our inclinations and temper our natures, so that we become able to distinguish the good things and the fine qualities and to choose from among them the best and the most fitting.

Lamarck and Darwin said: every evolution that occurs in humanity is the offspring of the evolution that preceded it.

And Rolph said: misfortune yields experience and whets resolve, and so leads to an evolution toward perfection. The man, or the nation, that knows how to profit from the shocks that strike it is the one that covers a wide stretch in the fields of evolution and progress.

And Heraclitus said: a man does not fall twice into the same river; and whoever allows himself to fall into it twice loses his lofty sensibility and his strength of will, and from this negligence deficiency is created in the man, and consequently in the nation.

Evolution in the individual, in the family, and in the nation leads to swift strides toward civilization and true patriotism and the knowledge of truths from their roots. Whoever lags behind in keeping pace with evolution and advancement makes himself like a stagnant pool of water in which insects nest and germs and diseases breed — whether these pools be the cause of personal diseases, or family ones, or social ones. Perhaps we can draw a lesson from these sayings, which apply to us in our tragedies, and especially the greatest of them, our tragedy of Palestine.

Some believe that they please God by refusing advancement and evolution, and they cast this great responsibility upon His will, the Exalted, making Him responsible for all their deeds. But the truth is otherwise: reliance upon His will, the Exalted, is not the same as the responsibility laid upon our shoulders, for the principles of morality are one — fixed, unchanging, indivisible. And these principles say: every man is responsible for his deeds and must bear their consequences.

Montesquieu said: laws in general are derived from nature and from the roots of things. Therefore we must rely on ourselves, and toil and labor to know the roots of things and their truth, and go on adapting ourselves and evolving, so as to take up what is better and more useful.

Did not the noble Prophet say to one of his visitors — when he dismounted from his mare and left her to wander, trusting in God — did he not say to him: tether first, then trust in God. From this saying it becomes clear to us that the revealed divine religions likewise command us to perform our duties, and to scrutinize and study and search out the truths and the knowledge of their roots.

Yes, the search for truths is among the elementary arts that must be known; it is a purely scientific art, and once we know the truth in all matters, we know their roots and their derivatives.

Balmes said: truth in the principles of understanding is knowing how to direct oneself toward the right paths; truth in conduct of affairs is uprightness, moral and intellectual; and truth in behavior is submission to the sound laws derived from justice.

There are several paths to knowing the truths upon which evolution is built. They may sometimes appear to us clouded and unclear, and something may have been added to them or taken from them, so that they change. Therefore the sound mind must look into things, into all that they contain and all that surrounds them, without addition or subtraction. And if truth is one with God, it is many and multiple among men and creatures. For example: the knowledge of truth in the sciences begets the true scholar; the knowledge of it in choosing the affairs of life brings forth the wise; the knowledge of it in politics and public works begets the great statesmen; and finally, the knowledge of it in all the professions a man practices makes him stand out from his fellows and his peers.

The most important means to the knowledge of truth is that a man think well and long. And the art of thinking well begets not only philosophers and scholars; it begets all men, whatever their classes and their occupations.

We must keep our minds always at work, lest their light go out, and for fear that sloth and paralysis overtake them. The most important aid to thinking well is complete attention to everything; and in order to think well we must attend well — otherwise we are like the lancet that cannot cut if its stroke is not made firm. Most of the time things pass before our minds and our imaginations but leave no mark upon us, because our minds are scattered: we look as though we did not look, and we hear as though we did not hear. This is the inattention that sometimes makes us fail to see something appearing right before us. Attention, then, is the source of the thinking from which the luminous idea is born; and how often useful opportunities escape us through our inattention. Attention multiplies the power of the mind and its luminosity to a degree that is almost past belief.

And when we wish to examine a thing, we must first ask ourselves: is it within our power to know it and to obtain it, or not?

And does it exist, or not?

And what are its nature and its kinds?

And since everything has its end, we must ask what its result and its end may be, should we obtain it.

"Pascal" said: men have three kinds of mind. First, the mathematical mind, from which are derived the science of geometry and algebra; this is the sound mind that admits no error, because it is founded on precision and exactitude. The second kind is the fine, subtle mind that observes things and understands them; this too is founded on precision and exactitude. The third kind is the mind turned toward illusions, vanity, and charlatanry; this one is founded on error and deceit, because it belongs neither to the mathematical mind nor to the fine, subtle mind — and the majority, alas, are possessed of the erring, misleading mind.

The true thinker is the one who grasps the clear, precise, well-proportioned idea, with upright, mature judgments, wisely and deliberately. There may be people who observe the truth and grasp it, but hastily and rashly, and so they understand of it only the surfaces. We may say that man is the plaything of his thoughts and his imaginings, and that often he would like to apply truths according to his inclinations and his passions.

And there is the theory of relativity, which says that I may see the thing I believe to be true as true in relation to myself, while another may see it as false in relation to himself. As for truth itself, it is ever relative to the sound human mind; and the sound human mind changes and evolves with the passage of time. Truth itself, then, changes and evolves with the passage of time and the succession of generations.

How many people have gone from this world without knowing or understanding anything of its secrets — indeed, without knowing anything of their own selves, or ever trying to know — although wisdom requires that we open our eyes to know the secrets of our hearts, and so reform ourselves, instead of being led blindly to the things that compel us to do them and drag us down to the lowest depths.

These are some of the principal paths of evolution and progress, which I hope the people of my country, and all the Arab lands, will follow, so that we may always move forward and stand in the vanguard of the peoples and nations of this age.