vi Preface 



sented in succeeding chapters of this work, and though the 

 writer's conclusions are at variance with past current opinion, 

 he trusts that the facts advanced will be weighed in that 

 spirit of fairness and impartiality that should characterize all 

 scientific method. 



But, as has often been emphasized during the past quarter 

 century, it is impossible to bring together a book like the pre- 

 sent, with pretension at the same time on the part of the 

 author to the knowledge of a specialist in every department 

 of biological inquiry. The facts of Botany and Zoology are 

 now so detailed and elaborated that few can hope to cover 

 more than a very limited field with the knowledge and dis- 

 cerning keenness of an extreme specialist. This need not 

 militate however against the making of an effort to link to- 

 gether isolated facts or groups of facts, if thereby the bounds 

 of biological knowledge can be extended. But in saying this 

 the writer is deeply conscious that not a few shortcomings or 

 mistakes may be revealed in the succeeding pages, when these 

 are perused by the specialist. For, as a specialist himself in 

 some departments of botanical science, he has ever found the 

 above to be true of the efforts even of the most distinguished 

 investigator. He would therefore ask a degree of considera- 

 tion on the ground that his whole aim has been to advance 

 truth and knowledge, even though at the cost of cherished 

 opinions or convictions of the past. 



During the progress of his investigations he has been in- 

 creasingly impressed by three outstanding characteristics of 

 organisms. First and of extreme importance is the principle 

 of continuity as traced from the simplest organized body to 

 the highest expressions of moral and religious organization in 

 man. Second, as the subtitle of this work and practically 

 every chapter of it emphasize, the outstanding phenomenon 

 of organic existence is not passive inert matter })ut energy^ 

 that continuous ' but ever transformable and subtle agency 

 that starts and effects all cosmic changes. So energy, continu- 

 ity, evolution may be said to constitute the triune basis of ex- 

 istence, mid togetlier form the keynote to this volume. 



