tself alone--an outcome
of the always and everywhere fiercely raging struggle for life.

So much, then, for the case of _physical_ evil; but Dr. Flint also treats
of the case of _moral_ evil. Let us see what this well-equipped writer can
make of this old problem in the present year of grace. He says--"But it
will be objected, could not God have made moral creatures who would be
certain always to choose what is right, always to acquiesce in His holy
will?... Well, far be it from me to deny that God could have originated a
sinless moral system.... But if questioned as to why He has not done
better, I feel no shame in confessing my ignorance. It seems to me that
when you have resolved the problem of the origin of moral evil into the
question, Why has God not originated a moral universe in which the lowest
moral being would be as excellent as the archangels are? you have at once
shown it to be _speculatively incapable of solution_ [italics mine], and
practically without importance[!]. The question is one which would
obviously give rise to another, Why has God not created only moral beings
as much superior to the archangels as they are superior to the lowest
Australian aborigines? But no complete answer can be given to a question
which may be followed by a series of similar questions to which there is no
end. We have, besides, neither the facts nor the faculties to answer such
questions."[46]

Now I confess that this argument presents to my mind more of subtlety than
sense. I had previously imagined that the archangels were supposed to enjoy
a condition of moral existence which might fairly be thought to remove them
from any association with that of the Australian aborigines. But as this
question is one that belongs to Divinity, I am here quite prepared to bow
to Professor Flint's authority--hoping, however, that he is prepared to
take the responsibility should the archangels ever care to accuse me of
calumny. But, as a logician, I must be permitted to observe, that if I ask,
Why am I not better than I am? it is no answer to tell me, Because the
archangels are not better than they are. For aught that I know to the
contrary, the archangels may be morally _perfect_--as an authority in such
matters has told us that even "just men" may become,--and therefore, for
aught that I know to the contrary, Professor Flint's regress of moral
degrees _ad infinitum_, may be an ontological absurdity. But granting, for
the sake of argument, t