PREFACE 



at present all scientific work is being done, it is 

 assumed in every page that follows. 



Though its stand-point is Evolution and its sub- 

 ject Man, this book is far from being designed to 

 prove that Man has relations, compromising or 

 otherwise, with lower animals. Its theme is Ascent, 

 not Descent. It is a History, not an Argument. 

 And Evolution, in the narrow sense in which it is 

 often used when applied to Man, plays little part 

 in the drama outlined here. So far as the general 

 scheme of Evolution is introduced — and in the 

 Introduction and elsewhere this is done at length 

 — the object is the important one of pointing out 

 how its nature has been misconceived, indeed how 

 its greatest factor has been overlooked in almost 

 all contemporary scientific thinking. Evolution 

 was given to the modern world out of focus, was 

 first seen by it out of focus, and has remained out 

 of focus to the present hour. Its general basis has 

 never been re-examined since the time of Mr. 

 Darwin ; and not only such speculative sciences 

 as Teleology, but working sciences like Sociology 

 have been led astray by a fundamental omission. 

 An Evolution Theory drawn to scale, and with 



