CHAPTER IX 



THE GOAL OF ASPIRING MORALITY 



The tendency and visible progress of moral civilization 

 toward greater and fuller realization, and therein still greater 

 understanding, gives birth to an aspiration worthy of con- 

 tinued life, a fitting goal for our potential immortality. In 

 the unperceived heights to which we may aspire, for our 

 lineal selves in their own flesh and blood ; are possibilities of 

 a humanity developed toward perfection, beyond the scope 

 of our imagination, in its attainments, and virtues and 

 attributes. We cannot describe or define that which is to 

 eventually transcend our present power to imagine; but we 

 can look, with a hope approaching certainty, to that next 

 eminence, which is the beacon of our present system, and 

 is within the perception of our limited intellect. Even 

 granting the possibility that our philosophy, of intellectual 

 altruism, may be superseded by a better system, as far 

 superior to this as this is above that of survival of experi- 

 ment, and destruction of unfitness, yet, without appreciation 

 of this unknown advance, we may seek much of progress in 

 the direction already begun. We can believe in the logical 

 sequence of upward evolution to grandest things; because 

 we have no difficulty in believing in the already achieved 



lesser things, which are now to be seen; and because belief 



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