28 INTRODUCTION. 



her account. By that process mistakes might arise 

 in the reckoning. The philosophers upstairs might 

 differ about the figures, or at least in equating them. 

 The philosopher requires fact, phenomenon, natural 

 law, at every turn to keep him right ; and without at 

 least some glimpse of these, he may travel far afield. 

 So long as Schopenhauer sees one thing in the course 

 of Nature and Rousseau another, it will always be 

 well to have Nature herself to act as referee. The 

 end as read in Nature and the end as re-read in, and 

 interpreted by, the higher Nature of Man may be very 

 different things ; but nothing can be done till the End- 

 in-the-phenomenon clears the way for the End-in- 

 itself — till science overtakes philosophy with facts. 

 When that is done, everything can be done. With 

 the finding of the other half of the ladder, even Ag- 

 nosticism may retire. Science cannot permanently 

 pronounce itself " not knowing," till it has exhausted 

 the possibilities of knowing. And in this case the 

 Agnosticism is premature, for science has only to look 

 again, and it will discover that the missing facts are 

 there. 



Seldom has there been an instance on so large a 

 scale of a biological error corrupting a whole philoso- 

 phy. Bacon's aphorism was never more true : 

 " This I dare affirm in knowledge of Nature, that a 

 little natural philosophy, and the first entrance into 

 it, doth dispose the opinion to atheism, but on the 

 other side, much natural philosophy, and wading deep 

 into it, will bring about men's minds to religion." 1 

 Hitherto, the Evolutionist has had practically no other 

 basis than the Struggle for Life. Suppose even we 

 1 Meditationes Sacra, X. 



