XII.J THEOLOGY AND EVOLUTION. 277 



with " man's brutal sport " opens up the familiar but vast 

 question of the existence of evil, a problem the discussion 

 of which would be out of place here. Considering, however, 

 the very great stress which is laid in the present day on the 

 subject of animal suffering by so many amiable and excel- 

 lent people, one or two remarks on that matter may not be 

 superfluous. To those who accept the belief in God, the 

 soul and moral responsibility ; and recognize the full results 

 of that acceptance to such, physical suffering and moral 

 evil are simply incommensurable. To them the placing of 

 non-moral beings in the same scale with moral agents will 

 be utterly unendurable. But even considering physical 

 pain only, all must admit that this depends greatly on the 

 mental condition of the sufferer. Only during conscious- 

 ness does it exist, and only in the most highly-organized 

 men does it reach its acme. The author has been assured 

 that lower races of men appear less keenly sensitive to physi- 

 cal pain than do more cultivated and refined human beings. 

 Thus only in man can there really be any intense degree of 

 suffering, because only in him is there that intellectual rec- 

 ollection of past moments and that anticipation of future 

 ones, which constitute in great part the bitterness of suf- 

 fering. 20 The momentary pang, the present pain, which 

 beasts endure, though real enough, is yet, doubtless, not to 

 be compared as to its intensity with the suffering which is 

 produced in man through his high prerogative of self-con- 

 sciousness. 21 



As to the " beneficial lines " (of Dr. Asa Gray, be- 

 fore referred to), some of the facts noticed in the preceding 

 chapters seem to point very decidedly in that direction, but 



20 See the exceedingly good passage on this subject by the Rev. Dr. 

 Newman, in his "Discourses for Mixed Congregations," 1850, p. 345. 



21 See Mr. G. H. Lewes's " Sea-Side Studies," for some excellent re- 

 marks, beginning at p. 329, as to the small susceptibility of certain ani- 

 mals to pain. 



