238 The Bible of Nature 



(c) Thirdly, from the biological point of view, 

 a good many of our troubles and disharmonies are 

 due to the fact that we tend to continue habits, 

 e. g., of eating, which are anachronisms, from which 

 we have both organically and socially evolved 

 away. If we persist in wearing an arctic ex- 

 plorer's dress in the Tropics we should not com- 

 plain of the heat. The problem becomes com- 

 plicated for man because he has created around 

 himself an intricate social environment which 

 evolves regardless of the individual. Thus there 

 comes about, for instance, a continual clashing of 

 biological and sociological ideals. 



(d) Fourthly, we must recognize with Huxley 

 that "there is a terrible amount of needless suffer- 

 ing amongst us, part of the awfulness of which is 

 that it means piling up pain and sorrow for gener- 

 ations yet unborn." We must not blame the sys- 

 tem of things for this; we are ourselves to blame. 

 And of all futile exercises of the human intelligence 

 perhaps that is worst which seeks to find some 

 apologetic interpretation of needless suffering. We 

 should never seek to apologize for the preventible, 

 we should seek to prevent it. Better than any 

 philosophical consolation over spilt milk is the in- 

 vention of an unupsettable pitcher. 



The Philosophical and the Scientific Outlook. Our 

 general position may be made clearer if we try to 

 indicate how the philosophical outlook differs from 



