from the Standpoint of Science 63 



dividual scientific worker that the doctrine 

 of evolution applies to the history of nations. 

 My interpretation way be wrong, but of the 

 true method I am sure : a community of 

 men is as subject as a community of ants or 

 as a herd of buffaloes to the laws which rule 

 all organic nature. We cannot escape from 

 them ; it serves no purpose to protest at what 

 some term their cruelty and their bloodthirsti- 

 ness. We can only study these laws, recognise 

 what of gain they have brought to man, and 

 urge the statesman and the thinker to regard 

 and use them, as the engineer and inventor 

 regard and then turn to human profit the 

 equally unchangeable laws of physical nature. 

 The origin of the world and the purport 

 of life are mysteries alike to the poet, the 

 theologian, and the man of science. One 

 who has stood somewhat as the mediator 

 between the three admitted the mystery, 

 saw the cruelty of natural processes when 

 judged from the relative standpoint of man, 

 but found therein an undefinable ' tendency 

 towards righteousness/ If by righteousness 

 he meant wider human sympathies, intenser 

 social instincts, keener pity, and clearer prin- 



