THE PURPOSE OF EVOLUTION 269 



the universal mind, which ordered it, will 

 be exactly as it was before psychological evolu- 

 tion began. If mind is indestructible, the evolved 

 human mind must re-act on the universal mind and 

 change it. And thus I feel constrained 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 pos- 

 sibly believe that this millennium was the final pur- 

 pose 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 anta- 

 gonism. The struggle for wealth and power will 

 never cease, and while it continues there can be no 

 millennium. The wolf will live as long as the lamb, 

 and the tw r o will never lie down together. So we 

 must look elsewhere for the object of evolution. 



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 poli- 

 tician, but it has never been the ideal of the moralist. 

 With him happiness may come as an adjunct, but it 

 cannot be a prime motive for action. His ideal is 

 duty. Consequently, ethical evolution seems to be 

 leading up to something which is not displayed on the 



