32 INTRODUCTION. 



this second factor will be given in the sequel from 

 which even the non-biological reader may draw his 

 own conclusions. Difficult as it seems to account for 

 the ignoring of an elemental fact in framing the 

 doctrine of Evolution, there are circumstances which 

 make the omission less unintelligible. Foremost, of 

 course, there stands the overpowering influence of 

 Mr. Darwin. In spite of the fact that he warned his 

 followers against it, this largely prejudged the issue. 

 Next is to be considered the narrowing, one had al- 

 most said the blighting, effect of specialism. Neces- 

 sary to the progress of science, the first era of a reign 

 of specialism is disastrous to philosophy. The men 

 who in field and laboratory are working out the facts, 

 do not speculate at all. Content with slowly building 

 up the sum of actual knowledge in some neglected and 

 restricted province, they are too absorbed to notice 

 even what the workers in the other provinces are 

 about. Thus it happens that while there are many 

 scientific men, there are few scientific thinkers. The 

 complaint is often made that science speculates too 

 much. It is quite the other way. One has only to 

 read the average book of science in almost any de- 

 partment to wonder at the wealth of knowledge, the 

 brilliancy of observation, and the barrenness of idea. 

 On the other hand, though scientific experts will not 

 think themselves, there is always a multitude of on- 

 lookers waiting to do it for them. Among these what 

 strikes one is the ignorance of fact and the audacity of 

 the idea. The moment any great half-truth in Nature 

 is unearthed, these unqualified practitioners leap to a 

 generalization ; and the observers meantime, on the 

 track of the other half, are too busy or too oblivious to 



