CHAPTER VI 

 The Cannibal in Evolution 



WE speak very commonly of the romance of science, 

 and in its every branch, however recondite 

 and apparently remote from human interest, there is that 

 sense of adventure which makes its votaries thrill with 

 expectation. The search for a principle which may 

 throw light upon almost palpable obscurity is not unlike 

 the work of the explorer who climbs a peak in order to 

 discover a way through the unknown. Not only the 

 traveller stands " silent upon a peak in Darien." But 

 to discover a new general law, or even to extend one, is 

 far more than such a distant prospect. It is to camp 

 in the wilderness and gather strength for the morrow's 

 task. In the world of geography what is known is known, 

 and cannot be forgotten. The time must come when 

 the explorer's work will be done. But science is limitless, 

 and so is human history, for there is not only the future 

 which must become at last a tale that is told, but also 

 the illimitable field of the past still as little unmapped as 

 the fabled Africa of the mediaeval cartographer. It is, 

 indeed, but a dim and faded palimpsest, or some inscrip- 

 tion in an unknown tongue, of which we know but a few 

 words, that may prove keys by which it may be deciphered. 

 What of the march of power and intellect in man it may 

 reveal we can only guess, though we may surmise from 



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