I06 PESSIMISM. 



harmony can bear no relation to the actuaHties of 

 hfe. 



§ lo. Or lastly, if we consider the psychological 

 conditions of internal harmony, we shall have again 

 to admit its impossibility under the present constit- 

 ution of things. 



The primary reflex in the rational soul of the 

 action of the environment, is the growth of certain 

 convictions as to the practical necessities of life. 

 These convictions, when they have sunk into the 

 soul, generate corresponding emotions, and ultim- 

 ately become incarnate, as it were, in the physical 

 structure of the body (whether by direct adaptation, 

 or by natural selection). But this process requires 

 much time. And what is the result in a world of 

 constant change ? The conditions of life change ; 

 the conduct required by the new conditions is first 

 (though often all too late) perceived by the reason, 

 and after a time the suitable emotions are grown, 

 prompting to the performance of that conduct ; and 

 last of all, perhaps only by the action of heredity 

 through numberless generations, the body is moulded 

 into fitness to perform its new functions. But how 

 if these changes follow more rapidly than the capa- 

 city of the organism to adapt themselves to them ? 

 It would tend to fall behind the times ; and thus 

 if A, B, C, be successive stages in the conditions 

 of life, requiring the adaptation of the organism to 

 them, it might be that our reason had adapted itself 

 to stage C, our feelings to B, while our body was 

 still only fitted to perform the duties of stage A, 

 and there would arise a conflict in the soul, i.e. the 

 elements of our being would be always more or less 

 unadapted to their work. And there can be no 

 doubt that such is everywhere and normally the 



