92 ETHICAL ASPECTS OF EVOLUTION 



To most men who are thoughtful this answer will, I think, 

 commend itself rather than the other, and, if I may antici 

 pate, it corresponds with the course of progressive evolution. 

 Neither in man nor in what we call nature is any single 

 final end discernible, but only a continual striving after 

 increased power. There is, indeed, a satisfaction of rest 

 and harmony, but that too, when it is examined, turns out 

 to be no definite final end, but merely a disposition towards 

 a process in the reverse direction, that is, towards the loss 

 of power, and ultimate extinction. 



A more decisive expression of how men feel on this sub 

 ject is given by their estimates of value, which we shall 

 shortly proceed to consider. What the final aspiration of 

 humanity is, and, indeed, that there is any single end of 

 conduct, is purely a matter of belief, and does not admit of 

 scientific proof. If all sane persons were agreed that all 

 our efforts converge in the direction of harmony, the pro 

 positions that there is a single end of action, and that that 

 end is harmony, would be axioms which it would be absurd 

 to dispute. But it is a plain fact that there is no such an 

 agreement, and that multitudes of men, including many 

 of the highest authority, have felt and asserted the opposite. 



If we pass from human ends to the final end of nature, 

 the history of the past (and that history provides the whole 

 of the data for an opinion which we possess) lends no 

 confirmation to the view that harmony is the end towards 

 which all natural processes converge. An almost complete 

 harmony with the environment is the state of those organ 

 isms which are the first in order of creation, and which still 

 occupy the lowest rungs on the ladder of evolution. Every 

 new adaptation has been won at the expense of conflict 

 with the environment, and is the point of departure for 

 fresh conflicts. As soon as the adaptation has been firmly 

 established, and the conflict has ceased, the nervous process 

 passes away from the consciousness, and the action becomes 

 automatic. If by harmony final and perfect adaptation 

 is meant, the end of our aspiration will be an automaton, 

 devoid of consciousness. That this is not the end of nature, 



