302 ORGANIC EVOLUTION CONSIDERED 



organized its nervous system — the greater are its 

 capacities for pleasure and pain. 



Enjoyment arises largely from the adaptation of 

 the organism to its environment, and suffering from a 

 lack of such adaptation. Suffering comes, therefore, 

 as an incentive to the animal to adapt itself to its 

 environment. Without hunger the animal would 

 starve without knowing it; without thirst it would 

 perish even in the presence of water; without pain 

 from cold it would freeze; without suffering from 

 heat it would be destroyed by fire; and without pain 

 from pressure the body would be crushed, with no 

 warning. Pain from disease and injury is a warning 

 that the body needs rest and change of environment. 



Suffering in our present condition is absolutely 

 necessary for our protection and preservation, and to 

 this extent it must be pronounced good, and not evil, 

 in a moral sense. 



Suffering also arises out of man's ignorance of 

 events that are to occur. Accidents are not foreseen, 

 and injury and death follow. It should be remem- 

 bered, however, that the laws of nature are invari- 

 able, and that in the true sense there are no accidents, 

 but only results produced, according to fixed laws, 

 and that such laws are necessary for man's welfare. 

 Gravity by its action produces much suffering and 

 many deaths, and yet it is the force which holds the 

 stars and planets in their orbits, and it produces 

 suffering only when sentient beings fail to recognize 

 the universal law of its action. Would we banish 

 this force and thus wreck the universe because of 

 the suffering it produces? or would it not be better 

 that we heed its existence and strive to regulate our 

 conduct accordingly? Fixed laws of nature are neces- 

 sary for man's preservation. They work injury only 

 when they are violated, and the consequent suffering 



