EVOLUTION THE MASTER-KEY 



student; this in relation to sociology or the study 

 of society, which it was the great achievement of 

 Spencer's predecessor, Auguste Comte, to include 

 within the realm of cause and law. 



In the volume named it is clearly shown that 

 only by a training in science can the idea of uni- 

 versal causation be fully realized, so that it becomes 

 an unconscious but constant factor in the forma- 

 tion of all opinions whatsoever. 



The first point, then, on which I would insist is 

 that, as the evolutionary philosophy is grounded 

 upon this great scientific generalization, so it was 

 from a wide and earnest study of science that its 

 author started towards his goal. And in these 

 days of gross utilitarianism in education, when 

 Science herself is being prostituted in the market- 

 place, and her claims to recognition stated to con- 

 sist in her financial possibilities, it must be as- 

 serted with such force as an author can command 

 that the major function of science, beside which 

 even such achievements as the control or extinction 

 of disease are nugatory, is to provide the sure 

 foundation upon which alone the highest truths 

 knowable by man can be built. The matter of 

 supreme importance for any man or age is what, in 

 the inmost heart, that man or age believes. The 

 age of faith is every age, and never yet was sceptic 

 without a creed, for a denial is an assertion of a 

 belief. Boito and Verdi may even be excused for 

 "improving upon" Shakespeare, by reason of the 

 appalling credo which they have put into the 

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