COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



tary occupation pursued for years in a confined 

 air, regardless of protesting sensations, brings 

 about a degenerate physical state in which the in- 

 herited feelings are greatly out of harmony with 

 the superinduced requirements of the body. 

 Desired foods, originally appropriate, become 

 indigestible. An air pleasure-giving by its fresh- 

 ness to those in vigour, brings colds and rheu- 

 matisms. Amounts of exertion and excitement 

 naturally healthful and gratifying are found in- 

 jurious. All which evils, due though they are 

 to continued disregard of the guidance of inher- 

 ited feelings, come eventually to be mistaken for 

 proofs that the guidance of inherited feelings is 

 worthless." ^ 



Further to pursue this interesting subject 

 would be to convert a set of illustrations, already 

 too elaborately stated, into an unmanageable 

 digression. Summing up the results now ob- 

 tained, we see that natural selection, acting less 

 rigidly under the limitations imposed by social 

 evolution, fails to reduce functions that are in 

 excess, and leaves them to be reduced by direct 

 equilibration. The process is accordingly slow, 

 since direct adaptation to a rapidly changing en- 

 vironment is attended by the appearance of 



^ Spencer, op. cit. i. 282, 283. [§ 126.] Light is thus 

 thrown upon the misuse of alcohol and tobacco, — one of 

 the most conspicuous of the cases in which men's physical 

 appetites prompt to actions that are injurious. 

 122 



