1 84 MAN'S PRIMITIVE STATE 



I problems of a moral nature, since it requires us to 

 I believe that the highest product of natural evolution is 

 / a being who has become responsible for impossibilities, 

 and has never been enabled to fulfil the characteristic 

 law of his being. The Christian view of history, on 

 the other hand, explains the gaps in natural evolution 

 by hypothecating a divine plan in which higher than 

 physical factors find rational place. It does not wholly 

 solve the moral problem, which is indeed too deep 

 and complex for human solving; but it relieves that 

 problem of an unnecessary and peculiarly stultifying 

 element, and shows that sin — the only seeming 

 exception to the law of continuity — was not made 

 by God to be an inevitable event in history, but 

 owes its origin to an avoidable and voluntary action 

 of creatures. If sin is really what man's conscience 

 declares it to be, no other explanation of it is morally 

 tolerable. 



In endeavouring to maintain the truth of the cath- 

 olic doctrine of man's primitive state, we shall often 

 be hampered by absolute lack of interest in the subject 

 among those whom we address. This indifference may 

 arise from an inveterate, although mistaken, convic- 

 tion that modern science has put our doctrine out of 

 court among intelligent men. But there is another 

 cause of indifference. Men are not likely to feel a 

 deep interest in problems the solution of which appears 

 to have no practical bearing or importance; and the 

 importance of a correct view of man's primitive spiritual 

 condition does not appear, until we have devoted seri- 



