INTRODUCTION 



The story of Social Evolution tells how one form of 

 life came to dominate so completely the lives and destinies 

 of all other forms, that for ages the creature man be- 

 lieved himself to be a separate and distinct creation, 

 master of his fate. It is a wonderful story, surpassing 

 in romance and fascination any epic or drama ever writ- 

 ten. In the dark ages before recorded history, great 

 forc'es were active, silently and insensibly working, mold- 

 ing the destinies of the future forms of life. In the pro- 

 cess of this evolution an occasional gleam of conscious- 

 ness began to dawn. Sensibilities became more refined; 

 sympathy and compassion, the products of complex rela- 

 tions, tempered and modified the earlier, cruder, adjust- 

 ments; cruelty and oppression became less and less the 

 guiding forces which governed the relations of conscious 

 beings; tolerance and sympathy became more and more 

 the directing principles of life. 



In order to understand the important and determining 

 factors in this process we must examine both the physical 

 and the spiritual basis of man's supremacy. There are 

 certain great principles which guide the growth and de- 

 velopment of life. We must study the relation of these 

 principles to man. In the chapters of Part I we 

 shall examine the explanations that have been brought 

 forward by naturalists for the origin of man's physical 

 being. In the chapters of the remaining parts of the book 



we shall examine the factors and the influences which have 



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