xiii EXTENSIONS OF DARWINISM 279 



first our attention, then our determination to learn the how 

 and the why, which are the basis of observation and experi- 

 ment and therefore of all science and all philosophy. These 

 considerations should lead us to look upon all the works of 

 nature, animate or inanimate, as invested with a certain 

 sanctity, to be used by us but not abused, and never to be 

 recklessly destroyed or defaced. To pollute a spring or a 

 river, to exterminate a bird or beast, should be treated as 

 moral offences and as social crimes ; while all who profess 

 religion or sincerely believe in the Deity — the designer and 

 maker of this world and of every living thing — should, one 

 would have thought, have placed this among the first of their 

 forbidden sins, since to deface or destroy that which has 

 been brought into existence for the use and enjoyment, the 

 education and elevation of the human race, is a direct denial 

 of the wisdom and goodness of the Creator, about which they 

 so loudly and persistently prate and preach. 



Yet during the past century, which has seen those great 

 advances in the knowledge of Nature of which we are so 

 proud, there has been no corresponding development of a 

 love or reverence for her works ; so that never before has 

 there been such widespread ravage of the earth's surface by 

 destruction of native vegetation and with it of much animal 

 life, and such wholesale defacement of the earth by mineral 

 workings and by pouring into our streams and rivers the 

 refuse of manufactories and of cities ; and this has been done 

 by all the greatest nations claiming the first place for civili- 

 sation and religion ! And what is worse, the greater part of 

 this waste and devastation has been and is being carried on, 

 not for any good or worthy purpose, but in the interest of 

 personal greed and avarice ; so that in every case, while 

 wealth has increased in the hands of the few, millions are 

 still living without the bare necessaries for a healthy or a 

 decent life, thousands dying yearly of actual starvation, and 

 other thousands being slowly or suddenly destroyed by 

 hideous diseases or accidents, directly caused in this cruel 

 race for wealth, and in almost every case easily preventable. 

 Yet they are not prevented, solely because to do so would 

 somewhat diminish the profits of the capitalists and legis- 

 lators who are directly responsible for this almost world-wide 



