42 INTRODUCTION. 



our understanding of what is without us, and most of 

 all with our understanding of the general history of 

 man. It has often been noticed that there is a certain 

 analog}^ between the life of the individual and that of 

 the race, and even that the life of the individual is a 

 sort of epitome of the history of humanity. But, as 

 Plato already discovered, it is by reading the large 

 letters that we learn to interpret the small. . . , 

 It is only through a deepened consciousness of the 

 world that the human spirit can solve its own prob- 

 lem. Especially is this true in the region of anthro- 

 pology. For the inner life of the individual is deep 

 and full just in proportion to the width of his relations 

 to other men and things ; and his consciousness of 

 what he is in himself as a spiritual being is dependent 

 on a comprehension of the position of his individual 

 life in the great secular process by which the intel- 

 lectual and moral life of humanity has grown and is 

 growing. Hence the highest practical, as well as spec- 

 ulative, interests of men are connected with the new 

 extension of science which has given fresh interest and 

 meaning to the whole history of the race." ^ If, as 

 Herbert Spencer reminds us, " it is one of those open 

 secrets which seem the more secret because they are 

 so open, that all phenomena displayed by a nation are 

 phenomena of Life, and are dependent on the laws of 

 Life," we cannot devote ourselves to study those laws 

 too earnestly or too soon. From the failure to get at 

 the heart of the first principles of Evolution the old 

 call to " follow Nature " has all but become a heresy. 

 Nature, as a moral teacher, thanks to the Darwinian 

 interpretation, was never more discredited than at 

 1 The Evolution of Religion, Yol. i., pp. 25, 29. 



