The theory of evolution encourages no millennial anticipations. If, for
millions of years, our globe has taken the upward road, yet, some time,
the summit will be reached and the downward route will be commenced. The
most daring imagination will hardly venture upon the suggestion that the
power and the intelligence of man can ever arrest the procession of the
great year.
Moreover, the cosmic nature born with us and, to a large extent,
necessary for our maintenance, is the outcome of millions of years of
severe training, and it would be folly to imagine that a few centuries
will suffice to subdue its masterfulness to purely ethical ends. Ethical
nature may count upon having to reckon with a tenacious and powerful
enemy as long as the world lasts. But, on the other hand, I see no limit
to the extent to which intelligence and will, guided by sound principles
of investigation, and organized in common effort, may modify the
conditions of existence, for a period longer than that now covered by
history. And much may be done to change the nature of man himself.
The intelligence which has converted the brother of the wolf into the
faithful guardian of the flock ought to be able to do something towards
curbing the instincts of savagery in civilized men.
But if we may permit ourselves a larger hope of abatement of the
essential evil of the world than was possible to those who, in the
infancy of exact knowledge, faced the problem of existence more than
a score of centuries ago, I deem it an essential condition of the
realization of that hope that we should cast aside the notion that the
escape from pain and sorrow is the proper object of life.