280 RELIGION. 



" Every one who believes, as I do, that all the corporeal 

 and mental organs (excepting those which are neither advan- 

 tageous nor disadvantageous to the possessor) of all beings 

 have been developed through natural selection, or the survival 

 of the fittest, together with use or habit, will admit that these 

 organs have been formed so that their possessors may com- 

 pete successfully with other beings, and thus increase in num- 

 ber. Now an animal may be led to pursue that course of 

 action which is most beneficial to the species by suffering, 

 such as pain, hunger, thirst, and fear ; or by pleasure, as in 

 eating and drinking, and in the propagation of the species, 

 &c. ; or by both means combined, as in the search for food. 

 But pain or suffering of any kind, if long continued, causes 

 depression and lessens the power of action, yet is well adapted 

 to make a creature guard itself against any great or sudden 

 evil. Pleasurable sensations, on the other hand, may be long 

 continued without any depressing effect ; on the contrary, 

 they stimulate the whole system to increased action. Hence 

 it has come to pass that most or all sentient beings have been 

 developed in such a manner, through natural selection, that 

 pleasurable sensations serve as their habitual guides. We see 

 this in the pleasure from exertion, even occasionally from 

 great exertion of the body or mind, — in the pleasure of our 

 daily meals, and especially in the pleasure derived from socia- 

 bility, and from loving our families. The sum of such pleas- 

 ures as these, which are habitual or frequently recurrent, give, 

 as I can hardly doubt, to most sentient beings an excess of 

 happiness over misery, although many occasionally suffer 

 much. Such suffering is quite compatible with the belief in 

 Natural Selection, which is not perfect in its action, but tends 

 only to render each species as successful as possible in the 

 battle for life with other species, in wonderfully complex and 

 changing circumstances. 



" That there is much suffering in the world no one dis- 

 putes. Some have attempted to explain this with reference 

 to man by imagining that it serves for his moral improvement. 

 But the number of men in the world is as nothing compared 



