PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. elf 
scheme that each of us should do his best to cultivate his 
intellect and his moral sense, it must be for some ulterior 
object, which we do not yet know. We see some men and 
women devote themselves to the welfare of mankind. They 
go through the whole ethical evolution, and follow strictly 
their consciences, refusing to do wrong even under great 
temptation. And then they die. Isthat the end? The 
whole progress of evolution, from the creation of the cosmic 
dust, has for its goal the production oi these men and 
women, and, if they have perished, all appears to have mis- 
carried. Was man given life, thought, and freedom of 
action for nothing? I cannot think so, because I cannot be- 
lieve that evolution will have no permanent effect. I can- 
not believe that, after the material Universe has passed 
away, the universal mind, which ordered it, will be exactly 
as it was before psychological evolution began. If mind 
is indestructible, the evolved human mind must re-act on 
the universal mind and change it. And thus I feel cén- 
strained to believe that psychological evolution may continue 
after the death of the body in which the mind is temporarily 
encased. 
If evolution was gradually leading to a state of perfect 
happiness on earth, if we might suppose that a millennium 
was approaching, then we might possibly believe that this 
millennium was the final purpose of terrestrial evolution, 
however inadequate it may appear to be. But there is no 
evidence of a millennium even in the very far distance. So 
long as man exists, ethical and intellectual evolution will 
both be going on, and they will always be in antagonism. 
The struggle for wealth and power wiil never cease, and, 
while it continues, there can be no millennium. The wolf 
will live as long as the lamb, and the two will never ie down 
together. So we must look elsewhere for the object of evo- 
lution. 
Indeed, psychological evolution is not making towards © 
happiness. Birds and other animals are as happy as man. 
Civilised man cannot boast that he is happier than the 
savage. The greatest happiness of the greatest number may 
be the ideal of the politician, but it has never been the ideal 
of the moralist. With him happiness may come as an ad- 
junct, but it cannot be a prime motive for action. His ideal 
is duty. Consequently, ethical evolution seems to be lead- 
ing up to something which is not displayed on earth, and 
which we can only conceive as a further development of 
psychological evolution when mind is freed from matter. 
It will be objected that we cannot even imagine a spiritual 
life unconnected with any material substance. That is 
