THE NATURE OF THE PROBLEM. 5 



pointing out its world-wide application, belongs to the 

 great scientist, Charles Darwin ; he it was who, in 

 1859, supplied a solid foundation for the theory of 

 descent, which the able French naturalist, Jean 

 Lamarck, had already sketched in its broad outlines 

 in 1809, and the fundamental idea of which had been 

 almost prophetically enunciated in 1799 by Germany's 

 greatest poet and thinker, Wolfgang Goethe. In that 

 theory we have the key to ' ' the question of all ques- 

 tions," to the great enigma of " the place of man in 

 nature," and of his natural development. If we are 

 in a position to-day to recognise the sovereignty of 

 the law of evolution — and, indeed, of a monistic 

 evolution — in every province of nature, and to use 

 it, in conjunction with the law of substance, for giving 

 a simple interpretation of all natural phenomena, we 

 owe this chiefly to those three distinguished natu- 

 ralists ; they shine as three stars of the first magni- 

 tude amid all the great men of the century. 



This marvellous progress in a theoretical know- 

 ledge of nature has been followed by a manifold 

 practical application in every branch of civilised life. 

 If we are to-day in the "age of commerce," if inter- 

 national trade and communication have attained 

 dimensions beyond the conception of any previous 

 age, if we have transcended the limits of space and 

 time by our telegraph and telephone, we owe it, in the 

 first place, to the technical advancement of physics, 

 especially in the application of steam and electricity. 

 If, in photography, we can, with the utmost ease, 

 compel the sunbeam to create for us in a moment's 

 time a correct picture of any object we like ; if we 

 have made enormous progress in agriculture, and in 

 a variety of other pursuits ; if, in surgery, we have 



