THE HARMONY OF VIRTUE

VII. 10. The Principle of Evil385that cannot be argued, it has to be seen, paripaÙyanti dhÈrÀÕ.And sight is only possible to the calm heart and the unperturbedunderstanding.The materialist is not wrong when he holds good and evil tobe merely operations of Nature which she uses impartially andwithout making a distinction, and that the distinction is an evolutionin the human mind. Evil is good disintegrating to prepare fora higher good. That which is now tyranny was once necessary toconsolidate human society. What was once an ideal state of society,would now be barbarous and evil. Morality progresses, religionwidens with the growing manifestation of that which is divinein the human race. As with the individual, so with the raceand the world, evil tends to good, it comes into existence in orderthat men may reject the lesser good and rise to the higher.The problem of pain remains. Was it necessary that the processshould be accompanied with pain to the individual? At one timethe capacity for pain, physical and mental, was infinitely lessthan it is now, so little that it might be pronounced to be nil. It isa remarkable fact that disease, pain and grief have grown keenerwith the growing fineness of the human organisation. Obviouslythis can only be a temporary development necessary toprepare a higher race which shall rise above pain to a highercapacity for pleasure and happiness. The lower organisation resistedthe saÌskÀra of pain and grief by the coarseness of itscomposition, it rejected pain in the sense of not knowing it. Thehigher organisation of the future will not be below it, but riseabove it. It was the knowledge of good and evil that broughtgrief and sin into the world; when that knowledge is surmountedman will rise above grief and sin. Before he ate the forbiddenfruit, he had the innocence of the animal; when he shallcease to eat it, he will have the innocence of the God. Is it notso that in nature pain is a possibility which has to be exhaustedand man has been selected as the instrument to bring it into existence,in a limited space, for a limited time, and work it out ofthe cosmos. In the light of this idea the Christian doctrine of theSon of Man on the cross acquires a new significance and manhimself becomes the Christ of the universe.Another question occurs. Is pain real or a shadow? The