300 ORGANIC EVOLUTION CONSIDERED 



to depend on individual effort is one of the wisest 

 provisions in nature. 



Intelligence and virtue are the necessary attain- 

 ments of him who would best adapt himself to the 

 affairs of this world, and the greater his attainments 

 in these things, the more perfect are the blessings 

 that are meted out to him. And so it happens that 

 in and around us is an ever present power " that 

 makes for righteousness." Things are so ordered 

 and arranged that they help draw man upward by 

 holding out incentives to effort. The perpetual 

 struggle for existence results not only in the preser- 

 vation and propagation of the strongest, but also, on 

 the average, of the wisest and best, so that humanity 

 moves upward. 



Thus it happens that the great end attained, and, 

 as I believe, design fulfilled, is the development of 

 man and the formation of human character. The 

 greatest design of all this vast machinery of earth is 

 to serve in the widest sense the well-being of man — 

 a design that is consistent with the highest concep- 

 tions that we can form of the Creator. 



