256 THE MEANING OF EVOLUTION 



below them, the literature of their time becomes 

 nearly impossible to read. Fielding and Smollett and 

 Stern helped to build up the English novel, but the 

 stories they tell speak of the grossness of their time 

 in language that is unmistakable. We are by no 

 means clean to-day. A fair proportion of our novels 

 leave much to be desired. The stage is the scene of 

 much we could wish to see cleaner. Above all this 

 grossness there towers a sweetness and beauty of 

 thought, and an earnestness of purpose, a sincerity 

 of effort, which makes the present time fuller of 

 moral purpose, fuller of the desire to be clean and 

 to help others to be clean, than graced any previous 

 period in the history of either England or America. 

 Under the change from country to city life man 

 has suffered. Here too evolution is necessary. City 

 life tells hard on the second generation and nearly 

 destroys the third; but we have come to understand 

 the difficulty and are fast remedying it. It is more 

 than possible that the next generation will see such 

 changes in the life of the worker in the great center, 

 as shall effectively stop the physical deterioration 

 that has come to the city dweller. God grant that 

 modern civilization has had teaching enough and 

 learned its lesson well enough. God grant further 

 that we may give over slaughtering our most am- 

 bitious and vigorous young men in battle to settle 



