92 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS. n 



that which would be adopted by the exponents of 

 the modern theory, that strange problem which it 

 is also the motive of the wonderful drama of the 

 book of Job to explain — the fact that the actual 

 distribution here of good fortune, or misery, is 

 entirely independent of the moral qualities which 

 men call good or bad. We cannot wonder that a 

 teacher, whose whole system was so essentially an 

 ethical reformation, should have felt it incumbent 

 upon him to seek an explanation of this apparent 

 injustice. And all the more so, since the belief he 

 had inherited, the theory of the transmigration of 

 souls, had provided a solution perfectly sufficient to 

 any one who could accept that belief." (Hihhert 

 Lectures, p. 93.) I should venture to suggest the 

 substitution of " largely " for " entirely " in the fore- 

 going passage. Whether a ship makes a good or a 

 bad voyage is largely independent of the conduct of 

 the captain, but it is largely affected by that con- 

 duct. Though powerless before a hurricane he may 

 weather a bad gale. 



Note 5 (p. 61). 



The outward condition of the soul is, in each new 

 birth, determined by its actions in a previous birth; 

 but by each action in succession, and not by the 

 balance struck after the evil has been reckoned off 

 against the good. A good man who has once uttered 

 a slander may spend a hundred thousand years as a 

 god, in consequence of his goodness, and when the 

 power of his good actions is exhausted, may be born 



