164 GENERAL EVOLUTION. 



may be allowed — which give character and tone to the deeper 

 spiritual life, as the color of the transparent vessel is communi- 

 cated to the light which radiates from within. 



But if evolution has taken place, there is evidently a provision 

 for the progress from the lower to the higher states, either in the 

 education of circumstances (^^ conflict ") or in the power of an in- 

 terior spiritual influence {'' harmony "), or both. 



p. Evidence derived from History. 



We trace the development of Morality in — first, the family, or 

 social order ; second, the civil order, or government. 



Whatever may have been the extent of moral ignorance before 

 the Deluge, it does not appear that the earth was yet prepared for 

 the permanent habitation of the human race. All nations preserve 

 traditions of the drowning of the early peoples by floods, such as 

 have occurred frequently during geologic time. At the close of 

 each period of dry land, a period of submergence has set in, and 

 the depression of the level of the earth, and consequent overflow 

 by the sea, has caused the death and subsequent preservation of 

 the remains of the fauna and flora living upon it, while the eleva- 

 tion of the same has produced that interruption in the process of 

 deposit in the same region which marks the intervals between ge- 

 ologic periods. Changes in these respects do not occur to any very 

 material extent at the present time in the regions inhabited by the 

 most highly developed portions of the human race ; and as the 

 last which occurred seems to have been expressly designed for the 

 preparation of the earth's surface for the occupation of organized 

 human society, it may be doubted whether many such changes are 

 to be looked for in the future. The last great flooding was that 

 which stratified the drift materials of the north, and carried the 

 finer portions far over the south, determining the minor topogra- 

 phy of the surface and supplying it with soils. 



The existence of floods which drowned many races of men may 

 be considered as established. The men destroyed by the one re- 

 corded by Moses are described by him as exceedingly wicked, so 

 that ^'i\\Q earth was filled with violence." In his ej-es the Flood 

 was designed for their extermination. 



That their condition was evil must be fully believed if they 

 were condemned by the executive of the Jewish law. This law, it 

 will be remembered, permitted polygamy, slavery, revenge, ag- 

 gressive war. The Jews were expected to rob their neighbors, the 



