 In Social Statics, Spencer asserts that evil is never permanent (59).  He reasons to this conclusion from two premises. First, he defines evil as the “non-adaptation of constitution to conditions” (1841, 59).  Second, he claims that all living beings gradually change to fit into their environment (59–60).  He lists a great number of natural phenomena that supposedly illustrate this law (60).  At the point of writing, Spencer was a Lamarckian, but he later maintained essentially this argument as a proponent of Darwinism. Evil in the human sense exists because human beings, by virtue of their selfishness, are unsuited to social living.  But this variety of evil, like all evil, will pass away as humans adapt to their circumstances.  He defines progress as the evolution of humans from selfishness to selflessness (1841, 63). 