My thesis to-night, however, will go beyond this common agreement, for I shall maintain, not that man is in _*large measure_ the product of his environment, but that environment has been the actual CREATOR of man; that the old division between body, soul, and spirit is non-existent; that man is a unified mechanism responding in every part to the adequate stimuli given it from without by the environment of the present and from within by the environment of the past, the record of which is stored in part in cells throughout the mechanism, but especially in its central battery--the brain. I postulate further that the human body mechanism is equipped, first, for such conflict with environment as will tend to the preservation of the individual; and, second, for the propagation of the species, both of these functions when most efficiently carried out tending to the upbuilding and perfection of the race. Through the long ages of evolution the human mechanism has been slowly developed by the constant changes and growth of its parts which have resulted from its continual adaptation to its environment. In some animals the protection from too rough contact with surroundings was secured by the development of an outside armor; in others noxious secretions served the purposes of defense, but such devices as these were not suitable for the higher animals nor for the diverse and important functions of the human race. The safety of the higher animals and of man had to be preserved by some mechanism by means of which they could become adapted to a much wider and more complex environment, the dominance over which alone gives them their right to be called "superior beings." The mechanism by the progressive development of which living beings have been able to react more and more effectually to their environment is the central nervous system, which is seen in one of its simplest forms in motor plants, such as the sensitive plant and the Venus fly-trap, and in its highest development only in the sanest, healthiest, happiest, and most useful men. The essential function of the nervous system was primarily to secure some form of motor activity, first as a means of securing food, and later as a means of escaping from enemies and to promote procreation. Activities for the preservation of the individual and of the species were and are the only purposes for which the body energy is expended. The central nervous system hag accordingly been developed for the purpose of securing such motor activities as will best adapt the individuals of a species for their self-preservative conflict with environment.