RELIGION AS ADJUSTMENT 



though thousands die ; nerve tissue will not re- 

 nounce its properties, to prevent indulgence in 

 evil thoughts and yielding to sinful inclinations 

 from depraving the imagination and weakening 

 the will. To be delivered from evil, we must 

 avoid the maladjustments of which evil is the 

 consequence and the symptom. Hence, while to 

 the aboriginal man malevolence was the only 

 conceivable source of suffering, the reverent 

 follower of science perceives the truth of the 

 paradox that the infliction of pain is subservient 

 to a beneficent end. " Pervading all nature, he 

 sees at work a stern discipline, which is a little 

 cruel, that it may be very kind.'* That perpet- 

 ual warfare going on throughout the animal 

 world, whereby those no longer fit to live are 

 spared the miseries of protracted existence, is 

 found to be also the indispensable condition of 

 the origination of higher forms of life. The dis- 

 appearance of savage tribes before the spread of 

 civilized races, while often accompanied by un- 

 justifiable aggression on the part of the stronger, 

 is perceived to involve the increase of the sum 

 total of happiness. Thus, with Michelet, we 

 come to regard pain as in some sort the artist 

 of the world, which fashions us with the fine 

 edge of a pitiless chisel, cutting away the ill- 

 adjusted and leaving the nobler type to inherit 

 the earth. ^ 



^ ** La douleur est en quelque sorte P artiste du monde, qui 



VOL. IV 3^5 



