I very often have my doubts, Bertie, if there
is such a thing as the existence of evil. If we
could honestly convince OTu-selves that there
was not, it would help us so much in formulating
a rational religion. But don't let us strain
truth even for such an object as that. I must
confess that there are some forms of vice,
cruelty for example, for which it is hard to
find any explanation, save indeed that it is a
degenerate survival of that warlike ferocity
which may once have been of service in help-
ing to protect the community. No ; let me
be frank, and say that I can't make cruelty fit
into my scheme. But when you find that
other evils, which seem at first sight black
enough, really tend in the long run to the
good of mankind, it may be hoped that those
which continue to puzzle us may at last be
found to serve the same end in some fashion
which is now inexplicable.
100 THE STARK MUNRO LETTERS.
It seems to me that the study of life by the
physician vindicates the moral principles of
right and wrong. But when you look closely
it is a question whether that which is a wrong
to the present community may not prove to
have been a right to the interests of posterity.
That sounds a little foggy ; but I will make my
meaning more clear when I say that I think
right and wrong are both tools which are
being wielded by those great hands which are
shaping the destinies of the universe, that
both are making for improvement ; but that
the action of the one is immediate, and that of
the other more slow, but none the less certain.
