LECTURE XXV. 



NATURAL SELECTION AND ETHICS. 



Natural selection a world process without ethical 

 quality in itself. As gravitation brings about physi- 

 cal order, so natural selection brings about organic 

 adaptation. It can be no respecter of persons, can 

 grant no justice but its own. 



A fallacy which dies very slowly is the idea that 

 Nature's operations execute human justice. " Rain 

 falls on just and unjust."- Luke, xiii. Tower of 

 Siloam. The Galileans whose blood was mingled with 

 the sacrifices. " Earthquakes ; their cause and cure." 

 It is only in human reaction from Nature's processes 

 that a moral element comes in. Gravitation makes 

 men upright. Natural selection in the long run favors 

 those who help others. 



At first a premium placed on egoistic qualities. 

 Man succeeds because of the ape and tiger qualities. 

 But ape and tiger have rudiments of justice, else they 

 could not hunt in bands. Need of fair play the base 

 of ethics. 



"Nature does not cosset nor pamper us. Provi- 

 dence has a wild, rough, incalculable road to its end. 

 It is of no use to try to whitewash its huge mixed in- 

 strumentalities, or to dress up that terrific benefactor 

 in the clean shirt and white neckcloth of the student 

 of divinitv." Emer*on. 



