36o Morality and Self-interest 



Morever, the theory of association shows us that 

 social evolution is the process of the expansion of 

 life for the individual, and expansion of life means, 

 not the subordination, but the realization of the 

 interests of the individual. The true statement 

 should be : religion provided a ^re-rational sanction 

 for the conduct of the individual where his inter- 

 ests and the interests of the social organism seemed 

 to be antagonistic. The real opposition is not be- 

 tween morality and interest, nor even between the 

 interests of the individual and the interests of the 

 society. These are always identical. The opposi- 

 tion, as in all problems of human misery, is that 

 between error and truth. 



The establishment of the true Darwinian theory 

 of social progress opens the way for the reconcilia- 

 tion not only of morality and self-interest but of 

 science and religion. With the overthrow of the 

 philosophy of force will disappear the apparent 

 conflict between reason, groping in the darkness 

 of a pseudo-science, and intuition, made up of 

 primordial inferences based on the social instincts 

 of human nature. 

 / The triumph of the Darwinian theory will mark 

 / the conquest of reason over the only remaining 

 area of irrationality — the realm of human relations 

 and morality. Religion gives us eternal truths, 

 but, in order that they may be effective, these 

 eternal truths must be expressed in terms of the 

 thought of each generation, and the spirit of our 

 age is essentially rational and scientific. When 



