100 ETHICAL ASPECTS OF EVOLUTION 



mended as the most perfect state, and as such has been 

 chosen by many ; yet we are told that, whatever its dis 

 advantages may be, the worst of them all is that it makes 

 men ridiculous. The reason for this is that it makes men 

 impotent for good or for evil. It is not despised, but even 

 honoured for its own sake, when, as in the case of St. Francis 

 of Assisi, to take one example out of many, it is a stepping- 

 stone to a widely diffused influence. Not only poverty, 

 but humility, obedience, chastity, and the whole band of 

 what Hume calls the Monkish Virtues are derided when 

 they are infructuous, and honoured in proportion to the 

 greatness of the effect which they produce on history. 



The same lesson is taught by the glory which comes from 

 great conquests. War not only brings misery and death to 

 both sides, and certainly contributes nothing to the general 

 wealth or the happiness of humanity, but it often im 

 poverishes the conquerors themselves. Nevertheless, it brings 

 immortality to the victorious leader, and a height of rejoicing 

 to his people which far exceeds any that could be produced 

 by the greatest accession of material wealth. This can only 

 be accounted for by the wide range of the effects and their 

 bearing on the evolution of the whole race, and the con 

 quering people in particular. Conquest has been the engine 

 by means of which most of the great advances in civilization 

 have been effected, and successful war brings out and 

 confirms all the highest qualities of the people who wage it. 

 Even the Caudine Forks may sometimes do the same, and 

 nations as well as individuals may profit by adversity. 



The consideration of success in war leads by an easy 

 transition to love of country and love of freedom, two 

 feelings which are closely connected with it. These, except 

 perhaps in times of decadence, are universally rated as 

 the highest of civic virtues, and, at the same time, furnish 

 the strongest of all incentives to action in the mind of the 

 individual citizen. They easily prevail over the passion 

 for material wealth, and even over the love of life itself. 

 A nation which preferred ease to independence would forfeit 

 the respect of its neighbours. We need not go far for 



