16 THE THRESHOLD OF EVOLUTION 



for you cannot put the ocean into a thimble ; and if the Hypo- 

 thesis I am endeavouring to illustrate can do anything to make 

 the unity of finity and infinity more comprehensible to the 

 finite mind of man, it is impossible to estimate to what extent 

 future knowledge and investigation may not be able, as science 

 advances, to extend the finite limit of man's understanding. 

 But greatly as it may be possible to enlarge the understanding 

 of man, it is inconceivable that it will be able to equalize its 

 comparative minuteness to more than that of a grain of sand 

 as compared with all the sand of knowledge in the world. So 

 great is divine wisdom above human knowledge ; and if know- 

 ledge is to help man to a more perfect existence, it can only 

 be by increasing his knowledge of his own insignificance and 

 by his learning to realise how small a part his individual exist- 

 ence is when compared with the infinite creation, even though 

 we measure him by his family, not by himself alone. 



I must therefore here explain to my reader that in placing 

 this extraordinary Hypothesis, which has been forced under 

 my notice in the remarkable manner narrated, I have only done 

 so under the full conviction that in so doing I am only a weak 

 instrument in the hands of my Creator, which he intends to use 

 in giving to the minds of my fellow-men a new departure in the 

 evolution of thought. No other belief would have given me the 

 'courage to place before my readers views and ideas so strongly 

 opposed to all past convictions. And I wish him to understand 

 that in so doing I do not wish to argue for or against the views 

 I express. For example, when a man engaged in deep mental 

 study or writing says to his wife, " Please turn the children 

 out of the room, they annoy me/* he does not mean thereby to 

 remove his children for ever from his sight, only to remove 

 them for a time that he may the better attend to his occupation. 



So in writing this treatise I have sought to banish all 

 my own past, present and future beliefs from my mind so 

 that my writing will be totally unbiased, and have only tried 

 to express such lines of thought as appeared to my mind to be 

 the logical outcome of my hypothesis and which seemed to 

 me most calculated to facilitate the demonstration of this revela- 

 tion, and the probable sequences of evolution. These 

 matters are put forward rather as subjects for consideration 

 and controversy which may lead to some tangible good in the 

 futur^ than with the object of convincing my reader on th* 4 



