EVOLUTION THE MASTER-KEY 



ing's "Abt Vogler": "There shall never be one lost 

 good"; "Why rushed the discords in, but that 

 harmony should be prized?" This, I think, is 

 more in consonance with the teaching of evolu- 

 tionary science than is Carlyle's "The great soul 

 of the world is just"; or the vague corresponding 

 line from the "Essay on Man": "All discord, 

 harmony not understood." If we hear only dis- 

 cord and are racked therewith, what avails it to us 

 that some one may be listening to the music of the 

 spheres ? Whereas Browning teaches that the dis- 

 cord is the condition of the harmony. 



Browning's sublime lines naturally suggest an- 

 other variety of optimism of which we may regard 

 Leibnitz as a type, with his " best of all possible 

 worlds." This, of course, did not mean, as is 

 sometimes thought, that no improvement on this 

 world is conceivable a doctrine which, like the 

 most universal Universalism, would, indeed, be 

 properly entitled to be described as optimism. 

 Leibnitz by no means meant to deny the existence 

 of any kind of evil: his conception was nearer 

 Browning's. Given certain conditions inherent 

 in things by whom given, we are not told the 

 Deity has done His best. This may be a vale of 

 tears, but that is not the Deity's fault no more 

 could fairly have been expected of Him in the cir- 

 cumstances ; this is the best word that was possible. 

 Doubtless we can imagine a better, but if we re- 

 member how seriously He was handicapped, we 

 must admit that He is not to blame. The reader 

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