106 ETHICAL ASPECTS OF EVOLUTION 



as we must mean, all the results of her operations. The 

 death of the individual and the extinction of the species 

 are phenomena as common as their life or their preservation. 

 Again, feeling is not the only end of the creature. The 

 instinctive actions of animals are not purposive, and even 

 if pleasure results or pain is avoided (and as often as not 

 this is not the case) the resultant feeling is no part in the 

 animal s design. In a large class of instinctive actions which 

 are concerned with the preservation of offspring it is impos 

 sible that the result could be foreseen. Among men, it is 

 probable that feeling may be one of the determinants in 

 a large class of action, in another large class it certainly 

 does not enter at all, and it is precisely to the second class 

 that men attach the highest values. That pleasure and 

 pain come into existence in order that a certain kind of 

 beings may exist has as much truth as that legs and arms 

 came into existence for the same purpose ; that is to say, it 

 is true only if the final end be regarded either as immanent 

 or as transcendental. If it is regarded as natural, it is not 

 proven, for we have not ascertained what the final end of 

 Nature is. Finally, as we owe all our enjoyment to Nature, 

 and as one of the features of evolution is the continuous 

 growth of those enjoyments both in number and in in 

 tensity, it seems ungrateful to accuse Nature of caring 

 nothing for them ; while to say that man cares nothing for the 

 great scheme of evolution, and would not make the smallest 

 personal sacrifice to further it, is a libel on humanity. All 

 the most deep-seated, the strongest and the most general of 

 our emotions of approval have for their object those pro 

 cesses in our own nature which most resemble the processes 

 of external evolution, and which are best calculated to 

 further its course. The ideals of humanity are determined 

 by their similarity to, and consonance with, the same 

 processes. Whenever personal interests are sacrificed, it is 

 in that cause, and in no other. Such sacrifices are common, 

 and when they are of unusual magnitude we rate them as of 

 the highest value to which humanity can attain. 



