PREFACE 



structive matter which I can claim as my own ; 

 though it may be interesting to observe that the 

 chapter on the Evolution of Mind was mostly 

 written, and the theory contained therein en- 

 tirely worked out, before the publication of 

 Part V. of the second edition of Mr. Spencer's 

 " Principles of Psychology." 



The new critical matter is mostly to be found 

 in the chapters relating to religion, and in the 

 discussion of the various points of antagonism 

 between the philosophy here expounded and 

 the Positive Philosophy. Though the real work 

 of demolishing the undue pretensions of Posi- 

 tivism had already been well accomplished by 

 Mr. Spencer,^ most of whose arguments are here 

 reproduced, it seemed to me that much might 

 still be done toward clearing up the dire confu- 

 sion with which in the popular mind this sub- 

 ject is surrounded — and this I realized the 

 more keenly as it was some time before I had 

 succeeded in getting clear of the confusion my- 

 self. Accordingly on every proper occasion the 

 opinions characteristic of the Positive Philo- 



1 [In Spencer's essay on the *' Genesis of Science" and 

 in his ** Reasons for Dissenting from the Philosophy of M. 

 Comte." Both papers appear in the second volume of the 

 definitive edition of Spencer's Essays, Scientific , Political a?id 

 Speculative^] 



ix 



