346 PROBLEMS OF HUMAN EVOLUTION 



the conditions of life that threaten to bring demoralisation with 

 them, new ideas that seem to undermine religion all these help 

 to form an atmosphere which produces moral vigour and purifies 

 religion and gives it strength. When cheap spirits were intro- 

 duced into England in the last century, degradation deep and 

 general seemed imminent. No doubt the deadness of the English 

 race during this period may be partly attributed to the new drink. 

 But the struggle to resist the evil has, equally beyond a doubt, 

 helped to raise the level of English life. Imagine the case of a 

 people for whom vice, owing to conditions never hitherto realised 

 upon the earth, was an impossibility : we should not expect to 

 find among them any great zeal for virtue. 



Another great seeming evil in England will, I believe, eventu- 

 ally turn out to be a blessing. Owing to the growth of 

 manufactures the population has become concentrated in large 

 towns. The life there is in many ways unhealthy. Physically 

 the conditions are not so good as in the country, and the tempta- 

 tions to crime are far greater. When comparative statistics are 

 produced, it is found that country folk commit fewer crimes in 

 proportion to their numbers than town folk. And the moral 

 drawn is usually this, that it is best to live a simple peasant life, 

 for virtue evidently thrives better amid green fields and hedge- 

 rows. And yet, if England had continued as it was before the 

 great outburst of manufacturing energy, if railways, steamboats, 

 those "arch-abominations" among a host of minor horrors, had 

 never been invented, it may safely be said that the English 

 people at the present day would have been at a lower level 

 morally than they are. The necessity of dealing with the 

 new evils that have arisen has put energy into ministers ot 

 religion, philanthropists and legislators. It may be said that 

 the evils have not been adequately dealt with. That is true, 

 but there is no sign of slackening energy. There is much 

 readiness to learn, a desire to avoid the mistakes of the past ; 

 there is no giving up trying. The better alternative has already 

 been chosen. Not very long ago when these new and trying 

 conditions arose, there were two possibilities : either the moral 

 and religious force in the nation would prove equal to the strain 



