14 EVOLUTION AND SOCIAL PROGRESS 



simply an act in controvention of society's standards; that 

 democracy is a failure and the Declaration of Independence 

 only spectacular rhetoric; that the change from one religion to 

 another is like getting a new hat; that moral precepts are 

 passing shibboleths; that conceptions of right and wrong are as 

 unstable as styles of dress; that wide stair-ways are open be- 

 tween social levels, but that to the climber children are an 

 encumbrance; that the sole effect of prolificacy is to fill tiny 

 graves, and that there can be and are holier alliances without 

 the marriage bond than within it. 1 



That there was no exaggeration in these state- 

 ments every one acquainted with the teachings of 

 these universities knows perfectlly well. All 

 these conclusions regarding the most sacred in- 

 stitutions, and the most fundamental moral princi- 

 ples, naturally flow from the prime doctrine of 

 materialistic evolution. They would all be true 

 if this original premise were not itself false as the 

 father of lies. This we shall easily and fully 

 make clear in the present volume, arguing from 

 the standpoint of science itself and from the 

 standpoint of scientific evolution, which we have 

 not the slightest desire to oppose or antagonize. 

 We are concerned with facts alone and shall en- 

 able the reader to form his unprejudiced decision. 



But with doctrines such as the above submitted 

 with academic warrant to the minds of hundreds 

 of thousands of students, not in the United States 

 only, but in England no less and on the continent 

 of Europe; with the professed guardians of the 



1 "Blasting at the Rock of Ages." Bolce's articles originally 

 appeared in the Cosmopolitan. 



