354 



THE EVOLUTION OF LIFE. 



records. But to the hypothesis of evolution, this absence is 

 no such obstacle. Suppose evolution, and this question is 

 necessarily excluded. Suppose special creations, and this 

 question, unavoidably raised, can have no satisfactory an- 

 swer. Still more marked is this contrast between the 

 two hypotheses, in presence of that vast amount of suf- 

 fering entailed on aU orders of sentient beings, by their 

 imperfect adaptations to their conditions of life ; and the 

 further vast amount of suffering entailed on them by enemies 

 and by parasites. We saw that if organisms were severally 

 designed for their respective p)laces in l^ature, the inevitable 

 conclusion is, that these thousands of kinds of inferior organ- 

 isms which prey upon superior organisms, were intended to 

 inflict all the pain and mortalitj' which results. But the hy- 

 pothesis of evolution involves us in no such dilemma. Slowlj^, 

 but surely, evolution brings about an increasing amount 

 of happiness : all evils being but incidental. By its essen- 

 tial nature, the process must everywhere produce greater 

 fitness to the conditions of existence ; be they what they may. 

 Applying alike to the lowest and the highest forms of organ- 

 ization, there is in all cases a progressive adaptation ; and a 

 siu'vival of tlie most adapted. If, in the uniform working 

 out of the process, there are evolved organisms of low types, 

 which prey on those of higher types, the evils inflicted foiin 

 but a deduction from the aA'erage benefits. The universal 

 and necessary tendency towards supremacy and multiplica- 

 tion of the best, appljdng to the organic creation as a whole 

 as well as to each species, is ever diminishing the damage 

 done — tends ever to maintain those most superior organisms 

 v/h ich, in one way or other, escape the invasions of the infe- 

 rior, and so tends to produce a type less liable to the inva- 

 sions of the inferior. Thus the evils accompanying evolu- 

 tion are ever being self-eliminated. Though there may arise 

 the question — Why could they not have been avoided </ 

 there does not arise the question — Why were they deliber- 



