ie eR E NATET I ONT i ta ial 
ok aD on ol Lh. lm a a a Fae a i 
eee a eee ge 
1891.] The Coming Man. 621 
as he was likely to resemble his progenitors in feature or form. 
He has a ready-made conscience, for which he is not at all 
responsible, and deserves no credit. It might be so acute as to 
cause him to die of remorse, were he betrayed into wrongdoing. 
Having reached this negative plane of mere respectability, D 
and his successors may develop some positive good trait, the 
habitual practice of which may become second nature. The 
feudal lord of A’s time found happiness only in the desolation of 
others; F.and G, his philosophical descendants, like Sir Titus 
Salt, grieve if they cannot find some means of doing lasting good 
to humanity, and yet from A to X, Y, and Z, expediency governs 
all of them. 
One finds it most expedient to obey the promptings of his 
conscience, and derives comfort only from so doing. The keeping 
alive of that “celestial spark” may be to him more valuable than 
all the possessions of the world ; while another, with none of this 
“spark ” to speak of, or who may have had it developed in some 
other direction, kicks the beggar who annoys him, and laughs 
with pleasure when he recollects the event. The philanthropist 
feels a heart glow in remembering how he has relieved some one 
in distress or has contributed to some reform movement. 
Different influences for good brought to bear upon successive 
generations are sure to appear in the last generation in a radical 
change of character from that of the remote ancestor, making it 
as impossible for X to do an evil deed deliberately as it was for 
A to do anything else. So you see that expediency, the doing 
of that from which we expect to draw the most comfort, is the 
controlling spirit of action in all. 
The world’s history shows that people became better only 
through intelligence ; that this made it possible for them to adopt 
higher expediency planes ; by regard for the rights of others each 
found his own rights best conserved. Nor did mankind, until 
the habit was instituted, do right from any other motive than 
that of mere convenience. The highest efflorescence of this 
natural law, beginning with the club, will be in the appearance of 
a highly developed altruism in a later age. Social maladies, 
poverty, and unhappiness will not be allowed to exist, upon the 
