Heredity, Variation and Genius 79 



sister is " delivered," praying in the same breath 

 that the whole business may be brought to a 

 speedy end. This again he devoutly does by 

 virtue of a religious faith springing from an intui- 

 tion of personal feeling to which, though it cannot 

 well be worth more than the subject is worth, he 

 ascribes a supreme kind of value far exceeding 

 the formal conclusions of labouring reason. Thus 

 are the humble exalted and the mighty brought 

 low ; for the innocent is by simple faith of more 

 value than the philosopher by deep thought, the 

 witling perchance nearer the kingdom of heaven 

 than the man of great wit. 



As it is the rule of organic evolution to care 



little for the single creature, animal or human, 



every living thing having been furnished with 



a sufficiently strong instinct to care for self — 



the manifest concern of Nature being to preserve 



and continue the species, cost what that may in 



waste of separate lives — the individual mortal is 



just used for what he is worth, without regard to 



whether he is a complete instrument or not, and 



furnished with a sufficient conceit of himself not 



to underrate his value. The one-sided genius, 



the neurotic fanatic, the self-righteous egoist, 



the self- flattering philanthropist, the terrorizing 



anarchist, the insane revolutionist, alike with the 



fury of the storm, the raging of the sea, and the 



madness of peoples, work to fulfil its ends, which 



are certainly not solely human ends. Even the 



fool is made good use of for the instruction 



