Page:The Conception of God (1897).djvu/110

gives up, in his book, in despair. And yet, from the point of view of evolution, this is exactly the form of evil that is most explicable. For as moral evil is a necessity for a progressive moral being, just so, and far more obviously, is physical evil a necessity for a progressive rational being. As the one form of evil is closely connected with our moral nature, so is the other indissolubly connected with our intellectual nature. Let me explain: The necessary condition of any evolution is a struggle with an apparently inimical environment. For example, the end and goal, the significance, the only raison d’être, of organic evolution in general, is the achievement of a rational being — man. The necessary condition of that achievement was the struggle with what seemed at every stage an inimical, i.e. evil, environment. But looking back over the course in the light of its glorious result — the achievement of man — we at once see that what seemed evil is really good. Now, it is equally the same with human evolution in relation to physical evil. The goal and end, the raison d’être, of social progress is the achievement of the ideal man — perfect both in knowledge and in character. But the attainment of perfect knowledge is impossible except in the presence of what seems at every stage an evil environment, and by conflict with it. But, evidently, such an environment is evil only through ignorance of the laws of Nature. Evil is therefore the necessary spur that goads us on to increase of knowledge. We are but foolish little children, at school. Nature, our schoolmistress, chastises us relentlessly until we get our lessons. It is quite evident, that, without the