CH. xvii METAPHYSICS OF NATURAL SELECTION 209 



quite as important here as the leaders. Mr. T. H. Green 

 has told us that the Napoleonic wars were able to do 

 some good, as well as mischief, in the world, just because 

 of the courage and loyalty of the millions of private 

 soldiers who were the victims of one man's ambition. 

 Faithfulness is the greatest of the virtues. Nor must 

 we forget the stored wealth of the past in the form of 

 moral institutions and traditions. 



We have one proof of the all-sidedness of Jesus 

 Christ in this, that He is both the supremely original 

 moral teacher and the supreme personal influence. He 

 so crossed the currents of dignity and respectability in 

 His age that dignity and respectability, feeling " what 

 such men call the ' necessity ' of putting him to death," 

 tried strange endeavour ! to " eliminate " Him ! Yet 

 without strain or manifest extravagance the view can be 

 advanced that it was His glory to put the great moral 

 commonplaces into circulation as " current coin." We 

 go to Him for " sweetness and light." He is the truth. 

 We go to Him for transforming warmth, and He makes 

 our cold ideals live, and melts our hearts. 



VI 



Natural selection then does not rule within the 

 sphere of reason. We may now face the question, 

 whether it can be said to account for the first emergence 

 of reason and morality ? 



One is reluctant to admit this. Yet it seems as if 

 there was almost the same warrant for ascribing the 

 emergence of reason to natural selection as for imputing 

 to its agency any other new thing that arises in the 

 course of evolution. Darwin's language we have pro- 

 nounced ill-balanced. Natural selection does not create. 



p 



