Spiritual Evolution of Society 159 



of permanent value. It seems as certain as that to- 

 morrow's sun shall rise, that this will be accomplished, 

 and when it does act in harmony with the will of the 

 Eternal, its progress and power of amelioration of 

 society will be apparent. 



Society as a whole is only now realising the power of 

 " Labour," and Labour itself has only now awakened 

 to its own commanding position. In the present state 

 of things it could not be expected that it would act in 

 any other way than it has done. But the more power- 

 ful section in the party must give up the purely 

 materialistic attitude and extend their horizon not only 

 to every section of the workers, but to the interests of 

 the unborn generations which are to follow. The 

 evolutionary process is a slow one, and the ethical part 

 of it must of necessity be the slowest of all when we 

 consider that it has opposed to it the primeval instinct 

 of self-preservation. But what is possible for the indi- 

 vidual is possible for the race, and as certainly as men 

 have given up their worldly possessions for their fellows, 

 so surely will the race as a whole devote its thought and 

 energies to the improvement of the lot of the genera- 

 tions who are to succeed. 



One word more must be said in regard to Nietzsche's 

 philosophy. It is often argued that Nietzsche is right, 

 and that England is in the process of decay through 

 failure to maintain the supremacy of the " Uebermen- 

 schen," of the principle that might is right. Few go so 

 far as to appraise his negation of " I'hyfothese Dieu," 

 or his gospel of " Become hard," or that logical outcome 

 of the Darwinian principle — " The weaker go to the 

 wall, and we shall help them to " ; but we are all con- 

 scious that day by day such an attitude becomes more 

 and more of an impossibility. It is only the cynic, 

 whose God is Mammon, or the so-called scientist, who, 

 forsooth, refuses to recognise the mystical side of man's 



