Does an animal evolve in a similar way to man?

It follows its own path of evolution. The same pattern is behind all evolution, it is a development. If one asked, “Do children evolve the same way as their parents?”, the answer would be “Yes and No”. They have a predestined pattern which they must follow, but within that pattern is a certain amount of freewill regulated by the awareness reached at stages of unfoldment. Animals follow their line of evolution according to the part they play in the whole process, for the law of consequences is immutable. Whatever is must be the result of what was. Animals are an essential part of the evolutionary plan, like everything else in Nature. The link is the unifying spirit and all life is one. Animals follow their preordained paths. The extent to which they develop is governed by that part of the Law applicable to them; the same applies to a flower, a tree, a bird, to the beasts of the field or to a human being.