i 



404 COSMIC FHILOSOFHY. [pt. iil 



finished projects, and frequent failure in the ever-renewed 

 strife between good and evil inclinations. So penetrated are 

 the noblest careers by the leaven of selfish folly, that the 

 oonscientious biographer is too often constrained to adopt the 

 tone of apology, mingling condeuiuation with approval. Side 

 by side with deeds of heroism and sympathetic devotion, his- 

 tory is ever recording deeds of violence and selfish oppres- 

 sion. Undisciplined and conflicting desires are continually 

 coming to fruition in hateful and iniquitous actions. The 

 perennial recurrence of war and persecution, the obstinate , 

 vitality of such ugly things as despotism, superstition, fraud, I 

 robbery, treachery, and bigotry, show how chaotic as yet is 

 the distribution of moral forces. "While the prevalence, here , 

 and there, of ignorance and poverty, disease and famine, shows I 

 how imperfect as yet is our piower to adapt ourselves to the 

 changes going on around us. 



That this state of things is temporarily necessitated by the 

 physical constitution of the universe and by the process of 

 evolution itself, may readily be granted.^ The physical ills 

 with which humanity is afflicted are undoubtedly consequent 

 upon the very movement of progress which is bearing it on- 

 ward toward relative perfection of life, and moral evils like- 

 wise are the indispensable concomitants of its slow transition 

 from the primeval state of savage isolation to the ultimate 

 state of civilized interdependence. They are not obstacles to 

 any scientific theory of evolution, nor do they provide an 

 excuse for gloomy cynicism, but should rather be viewed 

 with quiet resignation, relieved by philosophic hopefulness, 

 ■.\nd enlightened endeavoiurs to ameliorate them. But though 



^ In treatins of the special-creation hypothesis (Principles of Biology, 

 jiaitiii.) Mr. Speucer calls atteutiou to the numerous cases in which the 

 bit,her life is sacrificed, without compensation, to the lower, as for example in 

 the case of parasites. This is a fonnidable objection, not only to the doctrine 

 of special creations, but to anthropomorphic theism in genenil. But for my 

 Dresent purpose it is quire enough to point our that tlie constitution of the 

 world is such that even the s^n<?*'"* '^^ higher liie involves an enormous in- 

 Qictiou of misery upon seutieut creatiu'e^ 



