life to something higher
than self-interest is of the very essence of true morality, and its
highest reach is perfect love. We are a long way from that yet,
although the ideal was manifested two thousand years ago. The average
man to-day is certainly not nobler than the apostle Paul, nor does he
see more deeply into the true meaning of life than did John the divine,
but the general level is higher. Slowly, very slowly, with every now
and then a depressing set-back, the race is climbing the steep ascent
toward the ideal of universal brotherhood.

It is sometimes maintained by thinkers who account themselves
progressive that the law of evolution holds good of mankind so far as
our physical constitution is concerned, but that a special act of
creation took place as soon as the physical frame was sufficiently
developed to become the receptacle of a higher principle, and that
then, and not till then, "man became a living soul." But it is
impossible to square the circle in this way, and to contrive to get the
doctrine of the Fall in by the back door, so to speak. The idea in the
minds of those who hold this view appears to be that the tenant of the
body which had been so long in preparation was a simple but intelligent
and morally innocent personality who forthwith proceeded to do all that
Adam is credited with and therefore spoiled what would otherwise have
been a harmonious and orderly development; what we now see is not
evolution as God meant it, but evolution perverted by human
wrong-headedness. But this theory contains more difficulties than the
older one it aims to replace. It makes God even more incompetent then
the traditional view does. For untold ages, apparently, He has been
preparing the world for the advent of humanity, only to find that the
moment humanity enters it the whole scheme is spoiled. But we need not
seriously consider this view; the facts are overwhelmingly against it.
The history, even of the most recent civilisations, is, comparatively
speaking, only as old as yesterday, whereas the presence of human life
on this planet is traceable into the almost illimitable past. But the
farther we go back in our investigation of human origins the less
possible does it appear that the primitive man of theological tradition
has ever existed. The Adam of the dogmatic theologian is like the
economic man of the older school of writers on political science, the
man who always wants to buy in the cheapest ma