6 A TEEOKY OF LIFE DEDCCED 



for by the fact that there is no completely elaborated 

 unification of knowledge, based on the doctrine of evolution 

 and measuring up to the requirements of a system of 

 philosophy, other than Herbert Spencer's. In other words 

 the terms " Evolution Philosophy " and " Synthetic Philo- 

 sophy "are practically convertible; and hence an expounder 

 of the one is, of necessity, to a very great extent, the 

 interpreter of the other, whether he is willing to acknow- 

 ledge the fact or not. It is perhaps proper to add that 

 though the conclusions set forth in the following pages 

 cannot, in the nature of the case, be considered original, 

 still the presentation of the subject and the method of 

 treatment alike are, for the most part, so entirely our own 

 as to make us alone responsible for any errors in the 

 premises. 



In attempting the task which we have undertaken, let us 

 ask the reader to pause for a moment and picture to himself 

 the globe on which he " moves, lives and has his being/' 

 Here, in the boundless regions of space a tiny ball 

 among the countless spheres that make up the universe 

 is an immense globe, adorned by the blended beauty of sea, 

 mountain, valley, tree, field and flower, enlivened by the 

 varied activity of a vast concourse of sentient beings, rolling 

 ever on and on with ceaseless energy amid glittering myriads 

 of other worlds that on a calm moonlight night look down 

 upon man with a million of eyes. Standing in the presence 

 of so profound a mystery, there is impressively forced upon 

 us, as the starting point of any rational theory of life, the 

 obvious elementary truth that man's very existence makes 

 him a part of the great scheme of things ; places him in 

 some sort of relation to his own little planet and all that is 

 on and around it ; creates for him a terrestrial and an extra- 

 terrestrial environment in which there is everywhere some- 



