2. What is the highest end of man? As to the ultimate end of man, a consensus of opinion can be obtained by a direct appeal to consciousness, though there may be found divergencies among writers on ethical philosophy as to the immediate end which man should place before himself in his conduct towards himself or in his conduct towards others. All are agreed that the one aim which. man has in all his acts is to secure happiness for himself. The highest as well as the ultimate end of man must, therefore, be to attain to a conscious state of unalloyed happiness, which is to be eternal and unsurpassed. To have a clearer and more definite idea of the highest end of man, it is necessary to compare him with other creatures in the universe and to mark the stage he has already reached in the march of progress towards the attainment of his highest end. The ancient Aryans have traced the evolutionary process in detail, and they fall in with the modern science as to the view that human form has been gradually evolved out of the animal. The evolutionary process which went on through the three lower kingdoms of nature below man,--not to speak of the still earlier stages of evolution referred to in the Upanishads, in the Puranas, and

in the orthodox systems of philosophy,--was concerned mainly with the perfecting of form, of the material vehicle used by Spirit, the Divine Consciousness, in Its evolution towards perfect self-realisation. The main purpose of this evolution is to so perfect the form as to make it a proper medium for the Divine Being dwelling within every creature to fully express Himself in all His aspects as Consciousness, Will, and Bliss. In the mineral kingdom, the physical form, which in the earlier kingdoms was more or less unstable, has attained to the highest degree of development in point of persistency under varying conditions; and in the vegetable kingdom, it becomes pliable to the action of vital force in the form of organic growth, without at the same time losing the persistency it has already gained in the mineral kingdom. The evolution of form in the animal kingdom adds to its persistency and improved capacity for organic growth a well-defined capacity for a life of sensation, all organs of sensation and activity being developed to a marked degree. In man, form is still further developed so as to constitute a fitting instrument for the carrying on of the process of thinking. By the time that the evolution of human form has, after passing through a long transition period, reached that stage at which it no longer admits of any appreciable further development, what we call mind begins to show signs of its