66 INTRODUCTION 



the human reason should be put to confusion by 

 a breach of the Law of Continuity at the very 

 point where its sustained action is of vital moment? 

 The whole complaint, which runs like a dirge 

 through every chapter of this book, is founded on 

 a misapprehension of the fundamental laws which 

 govern the processes of Evolution. The factors of 

 Darwin and Weismann are assumed to contain an 

 ultimate interpretation of the course of things. For 

 all time the conditions of existence are taken as 

 established by these authorities. With the Struggle 

 for Life in sole possession of the field no one, 

 therefore, we are warned, need ever repeat the 

 gratuitous experiment of the past, of Socrates, 

 Plato, Kant, Hegel, Comte, and Herbert Spencer, 

 to find a sanction for morality in Nature. " All 

 methods and systems alike, which have endeavoured 

 to find in the nature of things any universal rational • 

 sanction for individual conduct in a progressive 

 society, must be ultimately fruitless. They are all 

 alike inherently unscientific in that they attempt 

 to do what the fundamental conditions of existence 

 render impossible." And Mr. Kidd puts a climax 

 on his devotion to the doctrine of his masters by 

 mourning over "the incalculable loss to English 

 Science and English Philosophy" because Herbert 

 Spencer's work "was practically complete before h 



