PKEFACE. 



present volume owes its origin to studies that 

 -*- began more than twenty years ago. The studies 

 themselves were prompted by a desire which soon became 

 imperative. And that desire was to find a satisfactory 

 answer to the question: What is " Man's Place in 

 Nature ?" 



Many things highly interesting and suggestive were 

 said from time to time -by the naturalists upon this 

 theme. And yet, as I came at length to notice, the 

 question itself seemed to be ambiguous. For, whatever 

 answer might be given it, all must depend at last upon 

 the answer to this further question, namely : What is 

 that reality which we call "Nature?" Allowing that 

 man is a product of "Nature/' there still seemed no 

 other way to learn the real nature and destiny of man 

 than through a successful inquiry as to the essence, 

 the inmost nature of "Nature" itself. If this term 

 "Nature" should prove to have a wider, and even so 

 much wider as to be a radically different, significance 

 from that which it is usually assumed to represent, 

 then our estimate of "man's place in Nature" must be 

 correspondingly modified. And this might very likely 



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