INTRODUCTION xv. 



" covery must sooner or later break upon him that Nature 

 " sent him to become a partner in her task, and share the 

 " responsibilities of the closing acts. It is not given to him 

 " as yet to bind the sweet influence of Pleiades, or to unloose 

 " the bands of Orion. In part only can he make the winds 

 " and waves obey him, or control the falling rain. But in a 

 " larger part he holds the dominion of the world in lower life. 

 " He exterminates what he pleases, he breeds and destroys, 

 " he changes, he evolves, he replenishes the earth with plants 

 " and animals according to his will. But in a far grander 

 " sphere and in an infinitely profounder sense his sovereignty 

 " is passing to him. For by the same decree he finds himself 

 " the guardian and the arbiter of his personal destiny and that 

 " of his fellow-men. The moulding of his life and his chil- 

 " dren's children in a measure lie with him through institution 

 " of his Creation, Parliaments, Churches, Societies and 

 " Schools, he shapes the path of progress for his country and 

 " his time." 



I am not conceited enough to hope that I can do much myself 

 to further these great aims of Creation, but if the Hypothesis 

 I have endeavoured to expound in this little treatise can act as 

 a finger-post to direct wiser men than myself along the right 

 road of Evolution so as to impress upon futurity the great duty 

 entailed upon mankind by creation of which his individual life 

 is but a drop in the ocean, or a grain of sand upon the shore of 

 humanity. I feel it my duty to place it before the world, no 

 matter how imperfect or erroneous my first conceptions may 

 be, so that time, in the hands of wiser brains, may evolve a 

 handsome man out of the unsightly babe of my imagination. 

 I must ask the reader to take the intention as an excuse for 

 what might otherwise appear an insult to his beliefs, with the 

 hope that my weak efforts may thus, in time to come, do some- 

 thing to produce a useful whole, but it can only be a small 

 seed, nothing more, black and unsightly perhaps, but one 

 nevertheless I feel may some day evolve a beautiful flower. 



Before closing this introductory chapter I must ask my 

 readers to be patient and forgiving with me for the way in 

 which on certain points I repeatedly take him over stale 

 ground. To the higher order of mind this is nothing less than 

 an insulting waste of time. But I am ever being made aware 

 in the course of conversation how little capable is the ordinary 



