THE QUESTION STATED 



grouped together under a general law. This 

 interpretation I shall then seek further to verify 

 by showing how it includes and justifies what- 

 ever is defensible in the generalizations which 

 such writers as Comte and Buckle have obtained 

 from an inductive survey of the facts of human 

 history. Finally I shall apply our central hy- 

 pothesis to the special problem of the Origin 

 of Man, and show how, from its marvellous 

 success in dealing with the difficult questions of 

 intellectual and moral progressiveness, the Doc- 

 trine of Evolution must be pronounced to have 

 sustained the severest test of verification which 

 our present scientific resources enable us to ap- 

 ply upon this great scale. With this most signi- 

 ficant and interesting inquiry, our Synthesis of 

 scientific doctrines will be completed. Such ulti- 

 mate questions as must inevitably be suggested 

 on our route — questions concerning the rela- 

 tions of the Doctrine of Evolution to Religion 

 and Ethics — will be considered, with the help 

 of the general principles then at our command, 

 in the Corollaries which are to follow. 



At present, however, we are not at the goal, 

 but at the starting-point of this arduous course ; 

 and our attention must first be directed to the 

 search for that ultimate axiom upon which our 

 Synthesis must rest. Where now shall we be- 

 gin ? In what class of sciences are we to look 

 for our primordial principle ? The above sur- 



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