EVOLUTION AND RELIGION 



product of evolution, you imply that it is some- 

 thing which the universe through untold ages 

 has been labouring to bring forth, and you as- 

 cribe to it a value proportionate to the enor- 

 mous effort that it has cost to produce it. Still 

 more, when with Mr. Spencer we study the 

 principles of right living as part and parcel of 

 the whole doctrine of the development of life 

 upon the earth ; when we see that, in an ulti- 

 mate analysis, that is right which tends to en- 

 hance fulness of life, and that is wrong which 

 tends to detract from fulness of life, we then 

 see that the distinction between right and wrong 

 is rooted in the deepest foundations of the uni- 

 verse ; we see that the very same forces, subtle 

 and exquisite and profound, which brought upon 

 the scene the primal germs of life and caused 

 them to unfold, which through countless ages of 

 struggle and death have cherished the life that 

 could live more perfectly and destroyed the life 

 that could only live less perfectly, until Hu- 

 manity, with all its hopes and fears and aspira- 

 tions, has come into being as the crown of all 

 this stupendous work, we see that these very 

 same subtle and exquisite forces have wrought 

 into the very fibres of the universe those prin- 

 ciples of right living which it is man's highest 

 function to put into practice. The theoretical 

 sanction thus given to right living is incompar- 

 ably the most powerful that has ever been as- 

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