XXXIV] LAND NATIONALIZATION 237 



that what we call evil may be essential to the ultimate 

 development of the highest good for all ; but he would not 

 listen to it or argue the question at all, but repeated, dog- 

 matically, that an omnipotent God might have made man 

 wise, good, and happy, and as He had not chosen to do so it 

 was absurd for us to believe in such a being and call Him 

 almighty and good. He then turned the conversation as if 

 he did not wish to discuss the matter further. 



There is one point in connection with this problem which 

 I do not think has ever been much considered or discussed. 

 It is, the undoubted benefit to all the members of a society 

 of the greatest possible diversity of character^ as a means 

 both towards the greatest enjoyment and interest of associa- 

 tion, and to the highest ultimate development of the race. 

 If we are to suppose that man might have been created or 

 developed with none of those extremes of character which 

 now often result in what we call wickedness, vice, or crime, 

 there would certainly have been a greater monotony in human 

 nature which would, perhaps, have led to less beneficial results 

 than the variety which actually exists may lead to. We are 

 more and more getting to see that very much, perhaps all, 

 the vice, crime, and misery that exists in the world is the 

 result, not of the wickedness of individuals, but of the entire 

 absence of sympathetic training from infancy onwards. So 

 far as I have heard, the only example of the [effects of such 

 a training on a large scale, was that initiated by Robert 

 Owen at New Lanark, which, with most unpromising 

 materials, produced such marvellous results on the character 

 and conduct of the children, as to seem almost incredible to 

 the numerous persons who came to see and often critically 

 to examine them. There must have been all kinds of 

 characters in his schools, yet none were found to be in- 

 corrigible, none beyond control, none who did not respond 

 to the love and sympathetic instruction of their teachers. 

 It is therefore quite possible that all the evil in the world 

 is directly due to man, not to God, and that when we once 

 realize this to its full extent we shall be able, not only to 

 eliminate almost completely what we now term evil, but 



