EVOLUTION THE MASTER-KEY 



A very scant acquaintance with philosophic works, 

 and especially with critical works on philosophy, 

 will convince the reader that the duty of endeavor 

 ing to recognize the elements of truth in the teach 

 ings of past writers is often too enthusiastically 

 performed. This I say not from any lack of 

 homage to the immortal dead ; but simply because, 

 in our respect for them, and given the natural 

 flexibilities of language, we too often attribute 

 to past writers views which would probably have 

 caused them the greatest astonishment or even 

 discomfort. This is assuredly better than the fool 

 ish and impudent practice of assuming that these 

 ancient thinkers are of no use to us to-day, and 

 were incapable, in their circumstances, of dis 

 covering anything that we can regard as true. 

 But it is necessary to exercise caution when we 

 attempt to detect anticipations of modern ideas 

 in old writers, lest we find ourselves attributing 

 to them views which could not possibly have 

 survived in the mental environment of their time. 

 The first evolutionists, we may nevertheless say, 

 were probably two illustrious men of genius whom 

 students consider to have been contemporaries, 

 though there is no reason to suppose that either 

 was aware of the other s existence. These were 



J. T. Merz s History of European Thought in tlie Nineteenth 

 Century (especially to the chapter entitled &quot;On the Genetic 

 View of Nature&quot;), and to the articles &quot;Evolution,&quot; by Hux 

 ley and Professor James Sully, in the ninth edition of the 

 Encyclopedia Britannica. 



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