X 



S 



EVOLUTION AND ETHICS 



Soleo eniin et in aliena castra transire, non tanquam transfuga 

 sed tanquam explorator. (L. ANN.EI SENEC^E EPIST. II. 4.) 



THERE is a delightful child's story, known by the 

 title of " Jack and the Bean-stalk," with which my 

 contemporaries who are present will be familiar. But 

 so many of our grave and reverend juniors have been 

 brought up on severer intellectual diet, and perhaps, 

 have become acquainted with fairyland only through 

 primers of comparative mythology, that it may be 

 needful to give an outline of the tale. It is a legend 

 of a bean-plant, which grows and grows until it 

 reaches the high heavens and there spreads out into 

 a vast canopy of foliage. The hero, being moved to 

 climb the stalk, discovers that the leafy expanse 

 supports a world composed of the same elements as 

 that below, but yet strangely new ; and his adventures 

 there, on which I may not dwell, must have completely 

 changed his views of the nature of things ; though 

 the story, not having been composed by, or for, 

 philosophers, has nothing to say about views. 



My present enterprise has a certain analogy to that 

 of the daring adventurer. I beg you to accompany 



B 



