The Metaphysics of a Naturalist 
77 
We may at last, in utter self-abasement, lay our mouths in 
our hands and our hands in the dust and pronounce ourselves 
unclean — the worst of sinners. But if character keeps growing, 
sinners we shall always find ourselves to be. Nothing is a surer 
sign of moral stagnation than the smug self-sufficiency which 
admits no sin. Sanctification and freedom from sin may mark 
the end of a holy life, for surely further growth is impossible. 
Pain, failure, sin; these we call collectively evil. A stone falls 
on the foot and produces pain. A stone is not evil. Gravita- 
tion is not evil. But gravitation acting on a stone may produce 
in my foot maladjustment of processes not in themselves evil. 
The circulation and its concomitant nervous processes are phy- 
siologically good. It is no accident that wrongly adjusted phy- 
siological processes are painful. Natural selection has doubtless 
brought about this result. 
The burnt child dreads the fire ; it is easy to say that pain is 
monitory and so good, but self rebels against it as evil. We per- 
ceive that, as pleasure is not good but its usual accompaniment, 
so pain is not evil but its permanent concomitant. Most deep 
seated diseases and fatal injuries are not especially painful. Pain 
has developed where it has a utility to the race. 
But, it is said, pain is not a guide to the correction of the evil. 
True, it is but a voice crying out from nature Beware!’’ How 
our utmost soul goes out in sympathy at sight of a suffering 
child. We can scarce avoid raising clenched hands defiantly 
against Heaven and cursing the injustice that causes agony to 
a helpless and innocent babe. 
The voice of the babe is the cry of the race. It speaks to the 
best in humanity, imploring aid, impelling to research. By and 
by a Jacob Biis hears the piteous wail of the human child, and 
iniquitous tenements tumble to ruin or grassy oases arise in the 
desert of Manhattan, or factories cease to grind out their grist 
of human suffering. 
In a happy world there must be sorrow and pain, and in a moral world 
the knowledge of evil is indispensable. — Fiske. 
Failure admits of a similar analysis. As pain indicates an im- 
perfect adjustment, so sense of failure in the intellectual sphere is 
the maladjustment of effort to object. If the iron be dull and 
thou whet not the edge, put to the more strength. Sense of 
