THE EVOLUTION OF SUFFERING 5 



nought endures save the flow of energy and the 

 rational order which pervades it. 



We have climbed our bean-stalk and have reached 

 a wonderland in which the common and the familiar 

 become things new and strange. In the exploration 

 of the cosmic process thus typified, the highest intelli- 

 gence of man finds inexhaustible employment ; giants 

 are subdued to our service; and the spiritual affections 

 of the contemplative philosopher are engaged by 

 beauties worthy of eternal constancy. 



But there is another aspect of the cosmic process, 

 so perfect as a mechanism, so beautiful as a work of 

 art. Where the cosmopoietic energy works through 

 sentient beings, there arises, among its other manifesta- 

 tions, that which we call pain or suffering. This 

 baleful product of evolution increases in quantity and 

 in intensity, with advancing grades of animal organ- 

 ization, until it attains its highest level in man. 

 Further, the consummation is not reached in man, the 

 mere animal ; nor in man, the whole or half savage ; but 

 only in man, the member of an organized polity. And 

 it is a necessary consequence of his attempt to live in 

 this way ; that is, under those conditions which are 

 essential to the full development of his noblest powers. 



Man, the animal, in fact, has worked his way to the 

 headship of the sentient world, and has become the 

 superb animal which he is, in virtue of his success in 

 the struggle for existence. The conditions having 

 been of a certain order, man's organization has adjusted 

 itself to them better than that of his competitors in the 



