New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-11-08
THE EvANEsCENCE OF EVIL.
BY HERBERT SPENCER.


Of constitution to conditions. This is tru'
of everything that lives. Does shrut
dwindle in poor soil or become sickly wheI
deprived Of light, or die outright if removed
to a cold climate 1t is because the har
mony between its organization and its cir
cumstances has been destroyed. Those ex
periences of the farmyard and the menage
RE, which show that pain, disease and
death are entailed upon animals by certain
under the same law. Every suffering incl
dent to the human body, from a headache
up to fatal illness, from a burn or sprain
70 accidental loss of lite, is similarly trace
able to the having placed that body in a
situation for which its powers did not tit it.
Nor ia the expression confined in its appli
cation to physical evil; it comprehends
moral evil also. Is the kind-hearteC man
distressed by the sight of misery Is the
bachelor unhappy because his means will
pot permit him to marry! Does the mother
mourn over her lost child7 Does the emf
grant lament leaving his fatberland! Are
some made uncomfortable by having to
pass their lives in dlstasteful occupations,
and others from having no occupation at
all! The explanation is still the same. No
matter what the special nature of the evil,
it is invariably referable to the one generic
Gause-want of cODgruity between the
faculties and their spheres of action.
Equally true is it that evil perpetually
principle Of life, this nOn-adaptation of an
organism to its conditions is ever being rec
sited; and modification of one or both con-
tinues until the adaptation is complete.
Whatever possesses vitality, from the ele-
mentary cell up to man himself, inclusive,
Obeys this law. We see it illustrated in the
standardization Of plants, in the altered
habits of domesticated animals, in the
varying characteristics Of our own
summer, the Siberian herbs and shrubs
spring up, flower and ripen their
Seeds in the space of a few weeks,
kexposed to the rigor Of Northern winters
s@nimals of the temperate zone get thicker
't&ats. and become white. The greyhound,
which when first transported to the high
plateaus of the Andes fails in the chase tor
want OF breath, acquires in the course OF
generations more efficient pair of lungs.
Cattle which in their wild state gave milk
b4s for abort periods now give it almost
continuously. Ambling is pace not natural
to the horse, yet there are American breeds
that now take to it without training.
Man exhibits just the same adaptabiiity.
lie alters in color according to the temper
ature-lives here upon rice and there upon
whale oil-gets larger digestive organs if he
habitually eats innutritlOus food, acquires
the power OF long fasting il his mode of life
is irregular, and loses it when the supply of
food is certain; becomes fleet and agile in
the wilderness, and inert in the city; attains
acute vision, hearing and scent when his
habits Of life call for them, and gets these
senses blunted when they are less needful.
That such changes are toward fitness for
surrounding circumstances no one can
question. When he sees that the dweller
in marshes lives in an atmosphere which is
certain death to a stranger; when he sees
that the HindOO can lie down and sleep I'M
der a tropical sun, whilst his white master
with closed blinds and water sprInk-
lings and punkah can hardly get
dose; when he sees that the Green.
lander and the Neapolitan subsist comfort
ably on their respective tOOds-blubber and
macaroni-but would he made miserable
by an interchange of them; when he sees
that in other cases there is still this fitness
to diet, to climate and to modes OF life, even
the most skeptical Anast admit that some
law OF adaptation is at work. Nay indeed,
if he interprets facts Alright he will find
that the action Of such law is traceable
down to the minutest ramifications OF in
divldual experience. In the drunkard, who
needs an increasing quantity of spirits to
lntOXicate him, and IN the opium eater, who
has to keep taking larger dose to produce
the usual effect, he may mark how the sys-
TEN gradually acquires power to resist what
is nOxious. Those who smoke, who take
snuff, or habitually use medicines, can fur
nish like illustrations Nor. in fact, is there
any permanent change OF bodily staSe or
which is not to be accounted for
by the same principle.
This universal law Of physical modi.
iication is the law Of mental modi-
fication also. The multitudinous diff
terences of capacity and disposition
that have in course Of time grown up
between the Indian, African, Monaghan
and Caucasian races, and between the
various subdivisions of them, must all be
ascrloed to the requirement, in each case,
ni fitness for surrounding circumstances.
Those strong contrasts between the cha.
ractere OF nations and of times awhile since |
exemptlned, admit Of no other conceivable
explanation. Why all this divergence from
me one common original type! If adapta- |
ton OF constitution to conditions is not |
the cause. what is the causeY
There are none, however. who can with |
like consistency combat this doc.
trlne. for all use arguments that presuppose |
its truth. Even those to whose preiudices |
the theory of mans indefinite adaptibilitv |
is most opposed, are continually betraying
their involuntary belief in it. They do this
when they attribute differences of national |
character to differences in social customs
and arrangements; and again when thew
on the force of habit; and again
when they discuss the probable influence of
q proposed measure upon public morality:
and again when they recommend practice
NJ means of acquiring increased apti.
ude; and again when they describe
certain pursuits as elevating and Others
's degrading; and again when they
md again when they advocate certain sys,
ems Of mental disciple. whey they teach