PREFACE 



the lights and shadows properly adjusted — adjusted 

 to the whole truth and reality of Nature and of 

 Man — is needed at present as a standard for 

 modern thought ; and though a reconstruction of 

 such magnitude is not here presumed, a primary 

 object of these pages is to supply at least the 

 accents for such a scheme. 



Beyond an attempted readjustment of the accents 

 there is nothing here for the specialist — except, it 

 may be, the reflection of his own work. Nor, 

 apart from Teleology, is there anything for the 

 theologian. The limitations of a lecture-audience 

 made the treatment of such themes as might 

 appeal to him impossible ; while owing to the 

 brevity of the course, the Ascent had to be stopped 

 at a point where all the higher interest begins. 

 All that the present volume covers is the Ascent 

 of Man, the Individual, during the earlier stages 

 of his evolution. It is a study in embryos, in 

 rudiments, in installations ; the scene is the pri- 

 meval forest ; the date, the world's dawn. Tracing 

 his rise as far as Family Life, this history does 

 not even follow him into the Tribe ; and as it is 

 only then that social and moral life begin in 



