304 MAN AND THE WORLD. 



influence on the course of events. On the other 

 hand, the higher existences who have learnt the 

 necessity of social order and harmony, are thereby 

 enabled to acquire that knowledge which gives 

 them power over Matter. Thus there is a corre- 

 spondence, on the whole, between the spiritual con- 

 dition of an individual and a race and their material 

 resources. We are too apt to chafe against the 

 material limits of our being, too hasty in resenting 

 the physical obstacles to our higher aspirations : it 

 is possible that the real obstacle lies in the con- 

 dition of our own souls, and that God knows us 

 better than we know ourselves. What man, at all 

 events, could claim to be entrusted with higher 

 knowledge, and confidently assert that he would use 

 the Ring of Gyges, the Philosopher's Stone, or the 

 Elixir of Life, so as to further the highest spiritual 

 interests of himself and of the world ? And so with 

 societies. Let us suppose the reaHzation of what 

 many of our social philosophers regard as the proper 

 goal of human ambition. Suppose a humorous 

 fairy revealed to us a secret by which we might 

 satisfy all the material wants of life without labour. 

 What would be the result on a society at the 

 present level of intelligence and morality ? Would 

 it not convert it in very deed into a " city of the 

 pigs," intent only on making merry and making 

 love, and totally forgetful of any higher destiny of 

 man ? The truth and the true justification of the 

 divine government of the universe is that we are 

 not fit to be better off than we are, and that the 

 whole gigantic mechanism of the material world is 

 designed to further the attainment of the purpose of 

 the world. 



But we need not fear that this mechanism will be 



