78 GRAND STRATEGY OF EVOLUTION 



Thus all response, or movement, or growth, is meas- 

 urable in the sum total of many constructive and de- 

 structive processes. The actual condition attained in 

 any given case must represent, therefore, a positive, or 

 plus, quantity in the attainment of good, or of con- 

 structive profits, else it could not exist. 



Hence that which is good for any organism is pre- 

 cisely and adaptively directive, giving it more power 

 and stability. Evil is indiscriminately distributive and 

 tends primarily to decrease power and stability. The 

 good which resides in evil is the spur which impels 

 things within the influence of the good. Good and 

 evil, therefore, are the reciprocating functions of right- 

 ness, and both are essential to progressive adaptation 

 and constructive action. 



VIII. The Evolution of Fitness and Adaptation 



The evolution of mutual service and Tightness and 

 the evolution of fitness and adaptation are coincident; 

 in fact, each is a manifestation of the other. That is 

 to say, the prerequisite to every evolutionary process 

 is the creation of the fitting things to that constructive 

 end; and coincident with growth or evolution, progres- 

 sive adaptation must have taken place, or the right ways 

 must have been successively found to perform those 

 constructive services. 



What we call fitness and adaptation in reference to 

 any particular thing, or circumstance, may be some- 

 thing: (i) fundamental, absolute, and enduring; or 

 (2) transitional, serving as a stepping stone to higher 

 constructive levels, and then gone forever; or (3) im- 

 mediately constructive; or (4) apparently encumber- 



