LECTURE XLVIII. 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF DESPAIR. 



Prof. Edward A. Ross. 



Heredity. The fable of a free will. Is each the 

 arbiter of his own destiny ? Job. Nature's supposed 

 deference to human desert. The facts of heredity. 

 Whether by what our fathers were, or by what they 

 did, we still are made; fathers' weaknesses nearly as 

 bad as fathers' sins. " Allah has bound every man's 

 fate about his neck." Punishing to the third and 

 fourth generations. Nature's justice versus poetic 

 justice. The illusion of free will. The initial thrust 

 into life ; we awake on a slippery incline, and can 

 veer but little to the right or left. The new fatalism. 



Progress. Past development no security for the 

 future. As a beggar who awakes to find himself on 

 a throne surrounded by prostrate courtiers knows not 

 what moment he will become their sport, so we know 

 not when we shall find the current of Evolution 

 against us. Adaptation proves no kindly design. The 

 cake fits its pan because it was once dough. The 

 glacier and its bed. 



Conduct. The dark past of the race ; struggle and 

 sorrow, blood and tears. The Golgotha of Humanity 

 traced in history. The struggle for existence and its 

 awards. The fittest not always the righteous. How 

 the ape and tiger traits live on. The conflict between 



