FINAL CHAPTER 245 



brains arid laziuess have in the past been the chief means of 

 extinction, so, in the future, laziness and stupidity on the 

 part of mankind will be the sins that will damn man by his 

 total extinction, as they have done all species in the past. 

 So now the age of Invention is to enable man to finally 

 conquer superstition, Cruelty and Selfishness, which are 

 to attain their maximum of evolution in the next 

 century or so, and we are to see the mightiest wars of the 

 world, first, between nations, till the world is brought under 

 the rule of civilisation and commerce; then will follow civil 

 wars on the largest scale, till anarchy, socialism and demo- 

 cracy are destroyed and peace is to reign supreme, and man, 

 having learnt to use the powers Invention has placed in his 

 hands, will at last do good for good's sake, not for selfish ends. 

 We are misusing these powers for want of a better under- 

 standing of the aims and objects of our own life and creation. 

 How much longer we are doomed to live on before we learn 

 wisdom it is hard to say. The acme of knowledge we are daily 

 nearing, but we have not yet attained true wisdom, which, we 

 may say, is all summed up in the causes of our existence. 

 Why are we created ? To learn to overcome folly. How have 

 we been created? Evolution can alone teach us this. How 

 are we to attain to the objects for which we were created ? The 

 realisation of the laws that control past evolution are the only 

 true guide. How little we know on these subjects. If this 

 little treatise can only contribute some little help towards the 

 answer to these all-important questions, the paper on which 

 it is written will not be wasted. Here at the present moment, 

 after nearly one quarter of a million years devoted to study 

 and evolving civilisation, how many of us have learnt the 

 great lessons that evolution teaches, that self-protection is not 

 only the perfection of the art of defending our individual life, 

 likes and interests, but of defending the community of which 

 we form a small part. Not in Comfort, wealth and pleasure 

 of the individual, but in perfect endurance of the discomforts 

 of life ; by energy in work, skill in action, and co-operation to 

 increase the capital, and so produce the content of the 

 whole ; be it home, hamlet, city, community, country or con- 

 tinent, lies the power to produce wisdom and virtue, the seeds 

 of power and success. It is want not plenty, that makes us 

 strive for sufficiency. Efficiency at work, not play, that 



