When I, along with three or four of my boon companions, was in this
stage of doubt about theology, including the supernatural element, and
indeed the whole scheme of salvation through vicarious atonement and
all the fabric built upon it, I came fortunately upon Darwin's and
Spencer's works "The Data of Ethics," "First Principles," "Social
Statics," "The Descent of Man." Reaching the pages which explain how
man has absorbed such mental foods as were favorable to him, retaining
what was salutary, rejecting what was deleterious, I remember that
light came as in a flood and all was clear. Not only had I got rid of
theology and the supernatural, but I had found the truth of evolution.
"All is well since all grows better" became my motto, my true source
of comfort. Man was not created with an instinct for his own
degradation, but from the lower he had risen to the higher forms. Nor
is there any conceivable end to his march to perfection. His face is
turned to the light; he stands in the sun and looks upward.
Humanity is an organism, inherently rejecting all that is deleterious,
that is, wrong, and absorbing after trial what is beneficial, that is,
right. If so disposed, the Architect of the Universe, we must assume,
might have made the world and man perfect, free from evil and from
pain, as angels in heaven are thought to be; but although this was not
done, man has been given the power of advancement rather than of
retrogression.
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