ON THE CREATION AND GOD. 41 



or in a greater ratio than the good, while our nerves 

 grow more sensitive to the former which is the same 

 thing as an increase in its amount. But it is the ratio 

 between the two factors of evil and good, and not their 

 absolute amounts, that should determine whether we are 

 really making progress or the reverse. 



It does not here concern us to estimate the weight of 

 the pessimist's argument. Let it suffice to say for the 

 present that pessimism has a case, and that the issue 

 raised is not to be dismissed as an unpractical or a profit- 

 less one, on the ground that, whether life be an evil or 

 no, man must submit to it. The rise and spread of pes- 

 simism is a fact of great interest and significance, which 

 cannot be ignored when an estimate of the results of 

 evolution is being made ; and I shall have occasion to 

 refer to the subject again at the proper place. For the 

 present I am only concerned to notice an important 

 difference between the Darwinian account of the origin 

 and evolution of organized beings, and that of Hartmann, 

 the great chief, after Schopenhauer, of the pessimist 

 school of philosophy. In both Darwinism and the sys- 

 tem of Hartmann, the universe now looks as if it had 

 been planned by a conscious intelligence, though in 

 reality it was not. So far the two philosophers are 

 agreed, but only so far. For, according to Hartmann, 

 the Unconscious Will which produced the world laboured 

 without preconception, indeed, but still with a consum- 

 mate art and skill in seeking its ends in the case of 

 organized beings, and with a most persistent, though as 

 the event proved a fatal and perverse, purpose in the 

 evolution of life and consciousness. There was intel- 

 ligence at work, though blind and unconscious, according 

 to our modes of thinking ; and there was will and inten- 

 tion, though they were not accompanied with a con- 



