th of Forthgoing,
the "desire for fruit" is the necessary and blameless motive for
exertion. Without this, the man at this stage of evolution becomes
lethargic and does not evolve. Desire subserves Evolution, and it is
Right. The gratification of Desire may lead a man to do injury to
others, and as soon as he has developed enough to understand this, then
the gratification becomes wrong, because, forgetting the Unity, he has
inflicted harm on one who shares life with him, and has thus hampered
evolution. The sense of Unity is the root-Love, the Uniter, and Love is
the expression of the attraction of the separated towards union; out of
Love, controlled by reason and by the desire for the happiness of all,
grow all Virtues, which are but permanent, universal, specialised
_forms_ of love. So also is the sense of Separateness the
root-Hate, the Divider, the expression of the repulsion of the separated
from each other. Out of this grow all Vices, the permanent, universal,
specialised _forms_ of Hate. That which Love does for the Beloved,
that Virtue does for all who need its aid, so far as its power extends.
That which Hate wreaks on the Abhorred, that Vice does to all who
obstruct its path, so far as its power extends.

"Virtues and Vices are fixed emotional states. The Virtues are fixed
Love-emotions, regulated and controlled by enlightened intelligence
seeing the Unity; the Vices are fixed Hate-emotions, strengthened and
intensified by the unenlightened intelligence, seeing the separateness."
(_Universal Text Book_, ii, 32.) It is obvious that virtues are
constructive and vices destructive, for Love holds together, while Hate
disintegrates. Yet the modified form of Hate--antagonism,
competition--had its part to play in the earlier stages of human
evolution, developing strength, courage, and endurance, and while Love
built up Nations within themselves, Hate made each strong against its
competitor. And within Nations, there has been conflict of classes,
class and caste war, and all this modified and softened by a growing
sense of a common good, until Competition, the characteristic of the
Path of Forthgoing tends to change into Co-operation, the characteristic
of the Path of Return. The Path of Forthgoing must still be trodden by
many, but the number is decreasing; more and more are turning towards
the Path of Return. Ideals are formulated by the leaders of Humanity,
and the Ideals held up to-day are increasingly those of Lo