110 BIOLOGY AND THE STATE II 



befooled the individual, and in the course of evolution 

 has planted in him, in its own interests, an irrational 

 capacity for taking pleasure in doing that which no 

 reasoning in regard to self-interest could justify. As 

 with these lower and more widely distributed in- 

 stincts, shared by man with some low^r social animals, 

 so is it with this higher and more peculiar instinct — 

 the tendency to pursue new knowledge. Whether 

 reasonable or not, it has by the laws of heredity and 

 selection become part of us and exists ; its operation is 

 beneficial to the race ; its gratification is a source of 

 keen pleasure to the individual — an end in itself. 

 We may safely count upon it as a factor in human 

 nature ; it is in our power to cultivate and develop it, 

 or, on the other hand, to starve and distort it for a 

 while, though to do so is to waste time in opposing 

 the irresistible. 



As day by day the old-fashioned stimulus to the 

 higher life loses the dread control which it once exer- 

 cised over the thoughts of men, the pursuit of wealth 

 and the indulgence in fruitless gratifications of sense 

 become to an increasino: number the chief concerns of 

 their mental life. Such occupations fail to satisfy 

 the deep desires of humanity ; they become wearisome 

 and meaningless, so that we hear men questioning 

 whether life be worth living. When the dreams and 

 aspirations of the youthful world have lost their old 

 significance and their strong power to raise men's 

 lives, it will be well for that community which has 

 organised in time a following of and a reverence for 

 an ideal Good, which may serve to lift the national 



