66 NATURAL SCIENCE. July, 1893. 



an equable acceptation of oneself as part of a process : a triumph of 

 intelligence over selfishness. 



When we come to Professor Huxley's account of modern thought 

 with its " tendency to move along the old lines to the same results " 

 — that is, to the results of Indian and Greek philosophy — an extra- 

 ordinary omission becomes obvious. Modern thought pays at least 

 as strong a regard as did Indian or Greek thought to the position of 

 the individual, and the inequality of individual lots strikes at least as 

 harshly as ever against abstract conceptions of justice. But there is 

 a new factor, the consolations of the ideals of conduct expressed in 

 the New Testament. These bring happiness within the reach of the 

 most unhappy, and have altered in the most fundamental way the 

 principles of ethics. If they come with the authenticity assigned 

 them by dogmatists, there is an end of the matter. If they are the 

 climax of an inner spiritual law, which man himself is constantly 

 shaping and perfecting for his own guidance, there is also an end of the 

 matter. For then they would form as integral a part of the general 

 cosmic process as any of the ape and tiger methods, and it would be 

 as absurd to speak of the battle between ethical man and the immoral 

 cosmos as is the well-worn argument of those defending miracles, 

 that a law of nature (gravity) is interfered with when a man lifts his 

 hand. 



I can sum up my criticisms of this address very shortly : — 



Evolution does not move in cycles, but in a chain. 



Man's capacity for pain is a fact in dependence on other facts. 



The " immorality " of the cosmic process is at least a matter of 

 doubt. 



If the events on this world are part of the plan of a divine creator, 

 speculation on the immorality of the little we understand is futile. 



On the other supposition the highest modern ideals and the 

 brightest results to be hoped for in the future are a direct outcome of 

 the chain of evolution, and it is rhetoric with no philosophic basis to 

 write of the struggle between ethical and cosmic nature. 



Our consciousness of the process of ethical amelioration, just as 

 the part our consciousness plays in it, is a part of the cosmic process. 



P. C. M. 



