hat your assumption in this
regard, as in the other, may be founded on a misconception."

In the same way, the intellect may introduce reasons and deductions in
criticism of my hopes for my children, and the fallacies which may have
crept into my theories of loyalty and honor and aspiration.

Finally, he might say: "Permit me to observe that you made a curious and
somewhat amazing statement, just now, in reference to faith and an
all-wise purpose. Is it possible that you are still under the influence
of an out-grown mediaeval superstition? The only reasonable assumption
with regard to man's place in the universe has been quite clearly and
scientifically established by the modern theory of evolution. It appears
from that, that you and I are descended from an ape, which in turn is a
second-cousin-once-removed, so to speak, of the bat, the spider, and the
shark. We are all animals together, slowly passing through different
phases of evolution, and man owes his existence entirely to the
accidental results of natural selection and survival of the fittest.
Man's tribe happens to be more numerous than that of the elephant, or
the whale, which are larger animals; but less numerous than that of the
ant, which is almost his equal in intelligence and decidedly more
industrious, though it is so much smaller than man. Millions of ants
come into existence and go out of existence, every day, without making
any appreciable difference in the gradual processes of evolution. The
same thing may be said of man--or bats and whales. Surely it is high
time that a well-educated person of the twentieth century should
consider such things from a reasonable, scientific point-of-view."

When he has finished with this, if I am still in a receptive mood, he
may condescend to explain to me that self-interest and enlightened
reason supply the true and underlying motives for all conduct; and that
this is the only conception of life which is susceptible of intelligent
explanation.

As a matter of fact, although this illustration is entirely fanciful, I
was given a book to read, the other day, a modern book on morals, in
which this was the gist of the argument throughout--enlightened
self-interest, or selfishness, as the only sound and sufficient motive
for everything we do. The friend who gave it to me had accepted it as
scientific and authoritative and was thoroughly in accord with its
conclusions. I may add that this particular "friend," as far as I