INTRODUCTORY. 



appear that modern civilisation, with all its care 

 and solicitude for the individual comforts of the 

 race, will be, after all, fatal to our successors, unless 

 we adopt the wise precautions which our present 

 knowledge indicates as essential. 



During the last few decades, mankind has learned 

 from Nature many of her secrets, and the knowledge 

 thus obtained has been utilised to free him from those 

 hardships and even diseases which have beset him. 

 This knowledge, and the results of its application, have 

 increased like an avalanche, which adds to itself first 

 by pounds, then by hundredweights, and finally by 

 hundreds of tons. For instance, every climate now 

 contributes to supply us with an infinite variety of 

 foods, to satisfy every necessity and gratify the most 

 dainty palate ; and those who lack the power of 

 digestion can be supplied with food artificially 

 digested in the laboratory. The dangers of cold are 

 now minimised by better drainage of the surface soil, 

 by admirable systems of heating, and by the substi- 

 tution of woollen for cotton underclothing. Excessive 

 toil is prohibited by laws, especially in the case of 

 those occupations in which it is most apt to prove 

 inimical to personal well-being. Education, on the 

 lines most approved by educational departments, is 

 forced by fear of penalty upon the unwilling, and 

 some would even follow the example of certain 

 American states, and make us sober by depriving us 



