54 INTRODUCTION 



deepens with our understanding of what is without 

 us, and most of all with our understanding of 

 the general history of man. It has often been 

 noticed that there is a certain analogy between 

 the life of the individual and that of the race, and 

 even that the life of the individual is a sort of 

 epitome of the history of humanity. But, as Plato 

 already discovered, it is by reading the large letters 

 that we learn to interpret the small. ... It 

 is only through a deepened consciousness of the 

 world that the human spirit can solve its own 

 problem. Especially is this true in the region of 

 anthropology. For the inner life of the individual 

 is deep and full, just in proportion to the width of 

 his relations to other men and things ; and his 

 consciousness of what he is in himself as a spiritual 

 being is dependent on a comprehension of the 

 position of his individual life in the great secular 

 process by which the intellectual and moral life 

 of humanity has grown and is growing. Hence 

 the highest practical as well as speculative interests 

 of men are connected with the new extension of 

 science which has given fresh interest and meaning 

 to the whole history of the race." ^ 



If, as Herbert Spencer reminds us, " it is one 

 of those open secrets which seem the more secret 

 ' The Evolution of Religion^ Vol. I., pp. 26, 29. 



