hat our noise is all
about, so only that there be no end of the noise. Certainly no one can
establish the value of the evolutionary process in and of itself.

If the movement as a whole has no definite end that has absolute worth,
then it has no worth except as the stages, the individual factors
included in it, attain to something within themselves which is of
increasing worth. If the movement achieves this, then it has worth, not
otherwise. We may illustrate this question by asking ourselves
concerning the existence and significance of suffering and of the evil
and of the bad which are in the world, in their relation to this
tendency to indefinite progress which is supposed to be inherent in
civilisation. On this theory we have to say that the suffering of the
individual is necessary for the development and perfecting of the whole.
As over against the whole the individual has no right to make demands as
to welfare or happiness. The bad also becomes only relative. In the
movement taken as a whole, it is probably unavoidable. In any case it is
negligible, since the movement is irresistible. All ethical values are
absorbed in the dynamic ones, all personal values in the collective
ones. Surely the sole intelligent question about any civilisation is,
what sort of men does it produce. If it produces worthless individuals,
it is so far forth a worthless civilisation. If it has sacrificed many
worthy men in order to produce this ignoble result, then it is more
obviously ignoble than ever.

Furthermore, this notion of an inherent necessity and an irresistible
tendency to progress is a chimera. The progress of mankind is a task. It
is something to which the worthy human spirit is called upon to make
contribution. The unworthy never hear the call. Progress is not a
natural necessity. It is an ethical obligation. It is a task which has
been fulfilled by previous generations in varying degrees of
perfectness. It will be participated in by succeeding generations with
varying degrees of wisdom and success. But as to there being anything
autonomous about it, this is sheer hallucination, myth-making again, on
the part of those who boast that they despise the myth,
miracle-mongering on the part of those who have abjured the miracle,
nonsense on the part of those who boast that they alone are sane. There
is no ultimate source of civilisation but the individual, as there is
also no issue of civilisation but in individuals. Men, characte