Lect. IX.] OUPt FOREFATHEPuS. 209 



Is this, then, "the be all, and the end all" of organic 

 life upon the planet ; or will the races that become the 

 noblest turn round, go clean contrary to their 2)i*o- 

 genitors, the blood of their fellow-men becoming precious 

 in their sight ? If this should take place, and the finer 

 kinds of Men, rich in strength and life, and all the 

 means and appliances of life, should spare the poor and 

 needy, and save the souls of the needy, then this 

 counter-evolution will l3e a revolution indeed. 



History throws some light upon this dark problem, 

 our Celtic, Saxon, and Danish forefathers, the Wolves 

 and Bears and Eagles of the race in these northern parts, 

 — Men who surnamed themselves by the names of those 

 cruel creatures, — had, after a time, the sentiment of 

 mercy ingrafted into their wild minds ; some at least of 

 their descendants show us how rich are the results. 



I have broken my scientific tether, and have got, 



somehow, into the reo:ion of ethics. I am sure that vou 



wdll sympathise with me, for I was thinking of what 



Man would be likely to come to, ultimately, on mere 



necessitarian theories of evolution. If we all were mere 



biologists, pure and simple, then any lament over the 



destruction of low types, or any sentimental care for the 



poor and the afflicted, would be absurdly out of place in 



our observations and deductions. But in most of us there 



is a strange mixture of the natural and the mystical — of 



the child's joy in finding facts and drawing inferences, 



and the old man's sorrowful reflection that his days upon 



o 



