LECTURE XLIX. 



THE WAY OUT OF PESSIMISM. 



Prof. Edward A. Ross. 



Heredity. Limited transmissibility of taints and 

 defects ; all our ancestors of the surviving fittest. Most 

 weaklings in the ancestral stock weeded out ere we 

 were born. Our parents must have reached maturity, 

 at least. New aids in the combat with inherited evil 

 diet, climate, hygiene, literature, personal influence. 

 How heredity cherishes cheerfulness. Not the children 

 of the despairing shall inherit the earth. The world 

 belongs to its enjoyers. Life thrives not by despair 

 but by hope. 



Progress. How supported and upborne by the 

 cosmic process. No serious change to be feared ; the 

 environment reliably stable ; city life the chief new 

 element. The rhythm of progress not discouraging. 



Conduct. The elimination of the cruel and treach- 

 erous under the regime of order. Since the dawn of 

 civilization a survival of the comparatively just and 

 righteous. Certain horrors forever done with canni- 

 balism, human sacrifices, blood-thirst. Self-extinction 

 of the vicious and sensual. The x crust over the savage 

 thickens and will stand more strain. Fewer explos- 

 ions of the seething primitive passions. The problem 

 of sin not what it once was. Good men no longer 



