ON PRACTICAL OPTIMISM. 221 
disastrous effects upon human life and comfort where remedy 
is possible. The occurrence of storms, e.g., leads to greater 
care and science in shipbuilding ; the occurrence of pestilence, 
to better sanitary regulations, and so forth. “ Der Kampf 
mit der Natur,” says Dr. Gass, “umfasst von Anbeginn 
einen betriichtlichen Theil der Menschenbildung, und er 
hat, so unziihlbar auch die Optfer sein mégen, der Menschheit 
weit mehr verliehen als geraubt.”? Many facts will show us 
that pain is often subservient to good, and conducive toa 
higher stage of happiness. And if we once desert the low 
ground of “ egoistic Hedonism ”’ as a standard of human happi- 
ness, we come to discern the fact that to give up our own 
pleasure and to encounter pain is often a higher form of what 
is, in effect, pleasant, because it is ina mental or moral sense 
good. 
15. Sorrow and mental suffering are not evils in an absolute 
sense. They temporarily interfere with individual happiness, 
but they often have, and seem intended to have, a disciplinary 
and awakening effect both upon the intellect and the con- 
science. The longing for a more complete and higher life is 
a spiritual motive within men, which—even apart from definite 
revelation of a life to come—elevates the soul, and so makes 
nen in reality happier than they were before the suffering 
came. Moreover, both the experience and the observation of 
suffering tends to evoke sympathetic capabilities which widen 
men’s outlook, and cultivate a humane and philanthropic spirit. 
Nor will it be denied’ that ‘ endurance ’”’ is often nobler than 
“enjoyment,’”’? and intimates truths of self-control and self- 
sacrifice which point to a higher goal than individual self- 
complacency, and develop possibilities of a social harmony 
yet to be attained where every part, in mutual adjustment, 
shall contribute to the happiness of the whole body. 
16. Sin, or moral evil, is the only form of evil of which we 
have to acknowledge that it seems absolutely antagonistic to 
good, to happiness, to hope, to harmony; and “sin is uni- 
versal.” Here is the greatest mystery and perplexity for the 
optimist philosopher. Violation of moral order is mischievous 
because it 1s the opposition of the will of intelligent beings to 
a Supreme Law, and an absolutely Righteous Will; yet where 
is there not such violation ? and why is this violation of moral 
law permitted? ‘It is sometimes asked,” says M. Naville, 
in his lectures on The Problem of Evil, ‘‘why did not God 
make the creature incapable of sin—that is to say, necessarily 
good? It is forgotten that necessity excludes liberty ; that 
where there is no liberty there is neither good nor evil; so 
that the idea of a creature necessarily good really implies a 
