INTRODUCTION 



was an imperfect appreciation of the goal toward 

 which the process of evolution is tending, and 

 a consequent failure to state adequately how 

 the doctrine of evolution must affect our esti- 

 mate of Man's place in Nature." ^ In conse- 

 quence, as he proceeded in the same connec- 

 tion to explain, " a new chapter needed to be 

 written " for the completion of the " Cosmic 

 Philosophy," although " nothing of funda- 

 mental importance " in that book needed to be 

 changed. This " new chapter," as one may 

 say at once, tended, as the years went on, to 

 grow longer and more detailed and positive in 

 its contents. The essay on " The Everlasting 

 Reality of Religion " and the posthumously 

 published Ingersoll Lecture on " Life Ever- 

 lasting " are the latest expressions that the 

 author found time to give to the views thus 

 in general indicated. And the change in his 

 opinions recognized by the author in 1885 

 became greater before these final papers were 

 written. 



It results from all these considerations that 

 the original form of the " Cosmic Philosophy " 

 could not have remained without considerable 

 alterations in case the author had found time 

 for the revision of the book. 



2. Yet just because these alterations can never 

 * Loc. cit. pp. xix, XX. 

 xxiv 



