222 MODERN IDEAS OF EVOLUTION 



t because they imply freedom of will. Given a system 

 of nature destitute of any being higher than the 

 instinctive animal, and introduce into it a free rational 

 agent, and you have at once an element of instability. 



, So long as his free thought and purpose continue in 

 unison with the arrangements of his environment, 

 so long all will be harmonious ; but the very hypothesis 

 of freedom implies that he can act otherwise ; and so 

 perfect is the equilibrium of existing things that one 

 wrong or unwise action may unsettle the nice balance, 

 and set in operation trains of causes and effects pro 

 ducing continued and ever-increasing disturbance. 

 This fall of man/ we know as a matter of ob 

 servation and experience, has actually occurred ; and 

 it can be retrieved only by casting man back again 

 into the circle of merely instinctive action, or by 

 carrying him forward until by growth in wisdom and 

 knowledge he becomes fitted to be the lord of creation. 

 The first method has been proved unsuccessful by the 

 rebound of humanity against all the attempts to curb 

 and suppress its liberty. The second has been the 

 effort of all reformers and philanthropists since the 

 world began ; and its imperfect success affords a strong 

 ground for clinging to the theistic view of nature, for 

 soliciting the intervention of a Power higher than 

 man, and for hoping for a final restitution of aUthings 

 through the intervention of that PowerJ^Mere 

 materialistic evolution must ever and necessarily fail 

 to account for the higher nature of man, and also for 



