THE EFFECTS OF EVOLUTION ON THE 

 COMING CIVILIZATION.* 



If one but knew what the " Coming Civilization " is to 

 be, it woukl then be a comparatively easy task to note the 

 processes by which it is to be brought about. It is not an 

 uncommon thing for people with an imaginative turn of 

 mind to jump to some alluring conclusion, and then, with 

 too little regard for facts and natural tendencies, to seek 

 for some short cut to the goal of their foregone conclusion. 

 And if their juillennium is anything more than a pleasant 

 dream with which to amuse an itUe hour, they not only 

 grow very impatient of natural growth, l)ut perhaj^s also 

 somewhat violent in their dealing with all who do not agree 

 with them. Plato's " Kepublic," Sidney's "Arcadia" and 

 More's "Utopia" may stand as S2)ecimens of ideal dream- 

 worlds. Their authors, however, whether they really 

 believed in them or not, did not intend to fight for them or 

 in any way urge them as immediate reforms. The thing 

 to be noted about them is that they were arrived at by a 

 purely <i priori process, not deduced as the result of any 

 observable tendencies in human history. The same is true 

 also of the "kingdom of heaven" which Jesus i)reached. 

 It does not follow, however, that these dreams Avere useless. 

 Man is the only animal, so far as we know, that is haunted 

 by an ideal. And the ideal not only hints the possible, 

 but it also serves the purpose of creating a divine discontent 

 with imperfect conditions and of stimulating effort towards 

 the attainment of something better. One may not realize 

 his dream ; but he will attain something better because of 

 his dream and of his struggle to grasp it. 



But these dreams are not all ancient ones. Tliey are 

 more in muuber, and are more operative in the si)here of 

 practical endeavor to-day than ever before in tlie history 

 of mankind. They are not only dreams, but they are the 

 motive-forces of crusades that liave their heroes and their 

 martyrs. The air is resonant with pi'ophet calls and rallying- 



* CopyillOllT, 1889, by The New Ideal ruhlisliiiig Co. 



