14:6 Mr. G. J. Bomanes on Darwinian Theory of Instinct. [Feb. 8, 



the whole creation, in all its pain and in all its travail, is certainly 

 moving, and this in a direction which makes, if not for " righteous- 

 ness," at all events for imiDrovement. No doubt the origin of evil has 

 proved a more difficult problem to solve than the origin of species ; 

 but, thus viewed, I think that the Darwinian doctrine deserves to be 

 regarded as in some measure a mitigation of the difficulty : certainly 

 in no case an aggravation of it. I do not deny that an immense 

 residuum of difficulty remains, seeing that, so far as we can judge, 

 the means employed certainly do not appear to be justified by the ends 

 attained. But even here we ought not to lose sight of the possibility 

 that, if we could see deeper into the mystery of things, we might find 

 some further justification of the evil, as unsuspected as was that which, 

 as it seems to me, Darwin has brought to light. It is not in itself 

 impossible — perhaps it is not even improbable — that the higher 

 instincts of man may be pointing with as true an aim as those lower 

 instincts of the brutes which we have been contemplating. And, 

 even if the theory of evolution were ever to succeed in furnishing 

 as satisfactory an explanation of the natural development of the 

 former as it has of the natural development of the latter, I think that 

 the truest exponent of the meaning — as distinguished from the causa- 

 tion — of these higher instincts would still be, not the man of science, 

 but the poet. Here, therefore, it seems to me, that men of science 

 ought to leave the question of pain in Nature to be answered, so far 

 as it can be answered, by the general voice of that humanity which 

 we all share, and which is able to acknowledge that at least its own 

 allotment of suffering is not an unmitigated evil. 



" For clouds of sorrow deepness lend 

 To change joy's early rays, 

 And manhood's eyes alone can send 

 A grief-ennobled gaze ; 



" While to that gaze alone expand 

 Those skies of fullest thought, 

 Beneath whose star-lit vault we stand, 

 Lone, wondering, and untaught." 



" We look before and after, 

 And pine for what is not. 

 Our sincerest laughter 

 With some pain is fraught." 



Yet still,— 



" Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought." 



[G. J. R] 



