Our own
distinction of right and wrong is founded too much upon
the immediate convenience of the community, and does not
inquire sufficiently deeply into the ultimate effect.
I have my own views about Nature's methods, though I
feel that it is rather like a beetle giving his opinions
upon the milky way. However, they have the merit of
being consoling; for if we could conscientiously see that
sin served a purpose, and a good one, it would take some
of the blackness out of life. It seems to me, then, that
Nature, still working on the lines of evolution,
strengthens the race in two ways. The one is by
improving those who are morally strong, which is done by
increased knowledge and broadening religious views; the
other, and hardly less important, is by the killing off
and extinction of those who are morally weak. This
is accomplished by drink and immorality. These are
really two of the most important forces which work for
the ultimate perfection of the race. I picture them as
two great invisible hands hovering over the garden of
life and plucking up the weeds. Looked at in one's own
day, one can only see that they produce degradation and
misery. But at the end of a third generation from then,
what has happened? The line of the drunkard and of the
debauchee, physically as well as morally weakened, is
either extinct or on the way towards it. Struma,
tubercle, nervous disease, have all lent a hand towards
the pruning off of that rotten branch, and the average of
the race is thereby improved.
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