PKEFACE. Xlll 



intellectual and moral nihilism of our time scarcely know 

 what to think, believe, or do, and I am speaking for 

 those less numerous, but not a few who, like myself, 

 wish to come to some sort of honest understanding with 

 themselves, on grounds of reason, irrespective alike of the 

 dogmatism of science and of theology as to what they 

 should believe on the questions of capital human concern. 

 The questions treated are no other than these. They 

 are the old eternal questions once more, only they are 

 here considered in their latest aspect, and under the 

 special light thrown upon them by scientific theories and 

 discoveries. And there are also new questions, social and 

 moral, belonging to the stage of social development we 

 have reached. In addition to the new theories of Science, 

 the reader will find in it the leading controversies of 

 morals, and religion, of life and society; in short, the 

 troubled consciousness of our century, which on all 

 questions holds opposite opinions with almost equal 

 assurance, is in a manner reflected in its pages. 



The book thus presupposes a thoughtful reader. 

 It is not meant for the general reader, in the widest 

 sense, but only for a select, though an increasing, section 

 of that huge and omnivorous class. Some, for all the 

 pains taken to lighten the exposition, coujd not read it ; 

 others would not by any persuasion be induced to read, 

 for it is often serious reading and not to be taken in 

 without due attention. 



The ordinary reader could not fully comprehend the 

 argument in the first chapter of Book iii., which is 

 properly metaphysical, without some slight philosophical 



