EDITOR'S TABLE. 



557 



we to conclude? Simply this, that the 

 moral education of the race so far has 

 been lamentably detective, that it has 

 not sufficed to bring the lower impulses 

 under subjection to the higher, that it 

 has not taught the love of virtue for its 

 own sake, that it has left men enslaved 

 to purely personal hopes and fears and 

 without anv conception of the larger 

 life in society — a life regulated by jus- 

 tice and sweetened by good-will — which 

 is really attainable in greater or less 

 degree by every normally constituted 

 human individual. The evolution phi- 

 losophy is, in a certain sense, a regime 

 of freedom ; and if a certain society, at 

 a certain date, is found to be unfitted 

 for it, we conclude, not that the regime 

 of freedom : .s bad in itself, but that the 

 society is backward and undeveloped. 

 It is no condemnation of parliamentary 

 institutions to say that they are not 

 suited to Caffres or Malays. If it should 

 be said that the doctrine of evolution is 

 as much unsuited even to the most ad- 

 vanced societies of to-day as parliament- 

 ary institutions are to Caffres or Malays, 

 we might reply, " The more's the pity, 

 seeing the doctrine has come into the 

 world, and has apparently come to stay." 

 "We should prefer, however, to traverse 

 the assertion, and to say that the ready 

 acceptance which is being given to the 

 doctrine is primary evidence of its be- 

 ing suited to the needs of at least a 

 large section of the community. Some 

 may take it and abuse it, as they would 

 any other doctrine, converting it, as 

 certain sectaries a couple of centuries 

 ago did the Christian doctrine of jus- 

 tification by faith, into a scheme of 

 antinomianism. But this does not do 

 away with the fact that the doctrine 

 has an intellectual attraction for nearly 

 all the more advanced minds, and that 

 these therefore may reasonably be sup- 

 posed to have some power of adapting 

 themselves to it. In all periods of 

 transition allowance must be made for 

 the disorders incident to the unsettle- 

 ment of men's minds. At the period 

 of the Reformation these disorders were 



of the most alarming kind — far more 

 alarming than anything we have to con- 

 template' at the present moment. The 

 duty of the hour, therefore, for those 

 who accept the new ideas, is to face 

 whatever may be the difficulties of the 

 situation boldly, and to apply them- 

 selves to developing and demonstrating 

 all the useful truths that are deducible 

 from the theory of evolution. The time 

 has come to throw upon men in a dis- 

 tinct and emphatic manner the full 

 responsibility for their own actions. 

 Heretofore the teaching has been that 

 unless men held to certain special doc- 

 trines and theories, they could not be 

 expected to live pure or righteous lives; 

 and under this teaching much moral 

 weakness has been engendered. To- 

 day it is in order to proclaim to one 

 and all that they must settle their opin- 

 ions with themselves; but that, what- 

 ever they may think, there is only one 

 line of conduct that befits a man born 

 into a civilized society, and that is a 

 conduct marked by self-restraint, and 

 a care for the good of the whole social 

 organism. The prophets of evil are 

 doing evil, and that continually. They 

 are helping on that relaxation of mo- 

 rality which they deplore, seeing that 

 they deny all moral authority to prin- 

 ciples not founded on their own special 

 dogmas. There is great need of an or- 

 ganized effort to antagonize the mis- 

 chievous effect of their writings by 

 preaching hope where they preach de- 

 spair, and the progress of humanity 

 through increasing knowledge where 

 they announce the dissolution of all 

 social bonds through the advent of a 

 philosophy which has the misfortune 

 of not being theirs. 



A STRANGE SIGHT IN SOUTH AFRICA. 

 Everybody nearly has been reading 

 that wonderful tale of imaginary ad- 

 ventures, " King Solomon's Mines " ; 

 but perhaps not very many have noted 

 the most startling and extraordinary 

 fact recorded in it, one in comparison 



