questions, and his answers to such questions were
extorted from him.

As to the question of optimism and pessimism, Darwin held that though
pain and suffering were very often the ways by which animals were led
to pursue that course of action which is most beneficial to the
species, yet pleasurable feelings were the most habitual guides. "We
see this in the pleasure from exertion, even occasionally from great
exertion of the body or mind, in the pleasure of our daily meals, and
especially in the pleasure derived from sociability, and from loving
our families." But there was to him so much suffering in the world
that it was a strong argument against the existence of an intelligent
First Cause.[214]

It seems to me that Darwin was not so clear on another question, that
of the relation between improvement and adaptation. He wrote to Lyell:
"When you contrast natural selection and 'improvement,' you seem
always to overlook ... that every step in the natural selection of
each species implies improvement in that species _in relation to its
condition of life_.... Improvement implies, I suppose, _each form
obtaining many parts or organs_, all excellently adapted for their
functions." "All this," he adds, "seems to me quite compatible with
certain forms fitted for simple conditions, remaining unaltered, or
being, degraded."[215] But the great question is, if the conditions of
life will in the long run favour "improvement" in the sense of
differentiation (or harmony of differentiation and integration). Many
beings are best adapted to their conditions of life if they have few
organs and few necessities. Pessimism would not only be the
consequence, if suffering outweighed happiness, but also if the most
elementary forms of happiness were predominant, or if there were a
tendency to reduce the standard of life to the simplest possible, the
contentment of inertia or stable equilibrium. There are animals which
are very highly differentiated and active in their young state, but
later lose their complex organisation and concentrate themselves on
the one function of nutrition. In the human world analogies to this
sort of adaptation are not wanting. Young "idealists" very often end
as old "Philistines." Adaptation and progress are not the same.

Another question of great importance in respect to human evolution is,
whether there will be always a possibility for the existence of an
impulse to progress, an impulse to make great claims on