174 THE CHILD AND HEREDITY 



introduced from without, since the simplest form of life 

 began the course of evolution that was to end in the most 

 complex and highest. It is evident, then, that on this 

 hypothesis, goodness existed potentially from the begin- 

 ning, only waiting for the required circumstances to 

 develop it." l 



In accordance with this view one would expect that what 

 applies to goodness also applies to evil ; and that it, too, is 

 present in the lowest organism, persists and is developed 

 from age to age. But apparently it is not so. The pro- 

 cess of evolution is said to be one by which evil is being 

 perpetually eliminated or subjugated, and evil cannot, 

 therefore, be regarded as a primary principle. 2 



I shall not inquire whether the biologist is entitled thus 

 to mete out a different measure to good and evil ; for I 

 cannot admit the transmission by inheritance of either of 

 them. Good and evil are in their very nature incapable 

 of being transmitted. For they are neither structures nor 

 functions ; neither organs nor faculties ; and it is only with 

 these that biological evolution deals. They are not even 

 modes or qualities of functions ; they are ways in which 

 rational beings operate ; they are " values " discovered by 

 the application of criteria, and have no independent exist- 

 ence and cannot persist. They continue to exist only so 

 long as they are being willed, or only so long as the will 

 is active ; and they imply a nature which is not only 

 potentially but, in some degree, actually rational. We call 

 a man good because we believe that his formed character 

 will lead him from time to time to do good acts. The 

 amount if we could really speak of ' ' amount " of good 



1 Headley's Problems of Evolution, p. 291. 

 2 See Problems of Evolution, p. 293. 



