Chapter VIII 

 The Spiritual Evolution of Society 



" But heard are the voices, Here eyes do regard you 



Heard are the sages, In eternity's stillness ; 



The worlds, and the ages : Here is all fulness, 



' Choose well, your choice is Ye brave, to reward you ; 



Brief and yet endless : Work and despair not.' " * 



IT may be asked why we have been made to wade 

 through pages of discussion as to the truth of 

 Darwinism, Malthusianism, Natural Selection, Heredity 

 and Environment in order to arrive at the beneficent 

 influence of Christian ethics and their practical appli- 

 cation in the conduct of human affairs. These 

 subjects are no doubt interesting in themselves, but 

 what have they to do with such matters as spiritual 

 evolution in the ideal state ? It has been demon- 

 strated already that humanity has cried for long to be 

 removed from the " dead hand " of heredity on account 

 of its blighting influence upon the minds of men which 

 has obstructed any movement in the direction of im- 

 proving the environment. This sufficiently explains 

 why we discussed these subjects : but why Darwinism, 

 Malthusianism, and Natural Selection ? For the reason 

 that if these theories are true, it is quite useless for man 

 to attempt to attain social betterment or a higher 

 spiritual evolution. If the " survival of the fittest " 

 were the fundamental law, and " vice and misery " the 

 only bulwarks against the extinction of the race, then, 



1 Carlyle's translation of Goethe's hymn, " Mason's Lodge." 

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