48 ETHICAL ASPECTS OF EVOLUTION 



ing the whole visible sphere not at rest, but moving in an 

 irregular and disorderly manner, out of disorder He brought 

 order, considering that this was far better than the other. 

 Now the deeds of him who is the best can never be or 

 have been other than the fairest ; and the Creator, reflecting 

 on the visible work of Nature, found that no unintelligent 

 creature, taken as a whole, was fairer than the intelligent, 

 taken as a whole ; and that intelligence could not exist in 

 anything that was devoid of soul. For these reasons He 

 put intelligence in soul, and soul in body, and framed the 

 universe to be the best and fairest work in the order of 

 Nature. 1 



Or Epictetus : 



Even as a mark is not set up for the purpose of being 

 missed, so there is no such thing in the world as positive 

 evil. 2 



It would be a waste of time to make a selection of similar 

 passages from the teeming pages of eighteenth-century 

 literature ; but space may be found for two conflicting 

 estimates of the worth of social evolution. According to 

 Adam Smith, Human Society, when we contemplate it 

 in a certain abstract and philosophical light, appears like 

 a great, an immense machine, whose regular and harmonious 

 movements produce a thousand agreeable effects : and he 

 goes on to speak of the innumerable advantages of a culti 

 vated and social above a savage and solitary life. 3 



Contrast this with an account of the Nicobar Islands, 

 which I have cut out of an Indian newspaper : 



The one salient feature of social policy in these Makaron 

 Nesoi Islands of the Blest is reported to be entire absence 

 of subordination. There is no person in authority, neither 

 chieftain nor head villager ; husbands have no control over 

 their wives, or parents over their children ; every individual 

 is a law to him- or herself. There are no proprietary 

 rights, no wants, no duties. No one has any occasion to 

 work, all their food and clothing being provided by Nature. 

 The notion of paying tax or tribute is unknown. Each 



1 Timaeus, 30, Jowett s translation. 



8 Encheiridion, cap. 26. 



8 Theory of Moral Sentiments, Part VII, s. iii, cap. 1. 



