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galton.org 195
The Observed Order of Events
195
terrestrial life can be deemed to have probably existed, to the latest future
at which we may think it can probably continue, and if we cease to dwell
on the miscarriages of individual lives or of single generations, we shall
plainly perceive that the actual tenantry of the world progresses in a
direction that may in some sense be described as the greatest happiness of
the greatest number.
We also remark that while the motives by which individuals in the
lowest stages are influenced are purely self regarding, they broaden as
evolution goes on. The word “self” ceases to be wholly personal, and
begins to include subjects of affection and interest, and these become
increasingly numerous as intelligence and depth of character develop, and
as civilisation extends. The sacrifice of the personal desire for repose to
the performance of domestic and social duties is an everyday event with
us, and other sacrifices of the smaller to the larger self are by no means
uncommon. Life in general may be looked upon as a republic where the
individuals are for the most part unconscious that while they are working
for themselves they are also working for the public good.
We may freely confess ignorance of the outcome in the far future of
that personal life to which we each cling passionately in the joyous
morning of the affections, but which, as these and other interests fail, does
not seem so eminently desirable in itself. We know that organic life can
hardly be expected to flourish on this earth of ours for so long a time as it
has already existed, because the sun will in all probability have lost too
much of its heat and light by then, and will have begun to grow dark and
therefore cold, as other stars have done. The conditions of existence here,
which are now apparently in their prime, will have become rigorous and
increasingly so, and there will be retrogression towards lower types, until
the simplest form of life shall have wholly disappeared from the ice-
bound surface. The whole living world will then have waxed and waned
like an individual life.
Neither can we discover whether organisms here are capable of
attaining the average development of organisms in other of the planets
that are probably circling round most
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