190 HEREDITY AND SOCIETY 



withholds the gift of life. And Herod's part in this 

 renewed massacre of the innocents is played by a 

 modern representative whose name indeed is Legion. 

 Who can fix the real responsibility ? Or again, if we 

 attribute the ebb-tide in human affairs not to the 

 stiffness of the material but to the failure of the 

 creative impulse, may not it be our own attitude of 

 mind that has neglected to contribute the spiritual 

 reinforcements necessary to keep that impulse working 

 at the fulness of its strength ? 



The temerity is great which dares to deal with 

 problems like the ones set forth in the preceding 

 chapters of this book ; even greater is the risk that 

 besets anyone who ventures to draw conclusions or to 

 suggest some possible interpretation of the greatest 

 mysteries of life. Yet it is impossible to ponder on 

 these subjects without trying to frame some sort of 

 tentative hypothesis. To accept the view that the world 

 around us is uncomprehensible, chaotic, purposeless, is 

 to deny the possibility of any rational thought and the 

 utility of any human progress. 



The end is not yet in sight ; it may never be attained, 

 in spite of all the religions and philosophies which have 

 held sway among the races of mankind. But thus much 

 more may be said. There have been many religions, 

 there have been many philosophies. Yet science is one. 

 It may be that the conjunction of the three will give us 

 some day the necessary clue, and that the seer will yet 

 arise who can write for a future generation the authentic 

 history of the origin and destiny of man. 



FRINTED BY NEILL AND CO., LTD., EDINBURGH, 



