THE EPOCH OF HOPE 93 



at this period mankind followed the example of the serpent 

 and mammoth reptiles by eating meat, which, as apes were 

 vegetarians, was to them forbidden fruit to which accomplish- 

 ment he next added the higher proficiency of killing for the 

 love of sport and did not stop till he had acquired proficiency 

 in cannibalism which placed him almost at the top of the tree 

 as a murderer. But we see even that was not reached till he has 

 in the year of Grace, 1916, used submarines, Zeppelins to 

 destroy unoffending women and children for no adequate mili- 

 tary advantage, added to which there is no excuse for such 

 acts of vandalism as there was for cannibalism in ages when 

 man's mind was less evolved, and cold, famine and want of 

 knowledge of how to contend reasonably with such evils were 

 the surrounding circumstances which tended to condone the 

 offence ; so that the military murderer of to-day is sevenfold a 

 greater murderer than was the cannibal of three hundred thou- 

 sand years ago. 



But do not forget, dear reader, that evolution permits 

 nothing to transpire that is not justified by the circumstances, 

 and one of the greatest requirements of to-day is that mankind 

 shall realise how necessary the prevention of wars, strikes 

 and social animosities is to the future advancement of evolu- 

 tion. So it is quite in the correct order of the day that both 

 as regards war, trades unionism and business cupidity and 

 scientific jealousy, they should all attain their perfection of 

 abuse at somewhere about the end of the second week of evolu- 

 tion, so that they may create a lasting impression on the minds 

 of mankind and make him realise that he will have to take 

 stringent measures for their repression, as well as to make 

 their re-occurrence an impossibility. But this even will be of 

 no avail if he does not realise that the cure must lie, not in the 

 removal of the evil, perhaps to substitute it by another form 

 of itself, or a still worse evil, but he must go further and study 

 up evolution and history till he can find the causes which 

 create its existence a temporary necessity, and he must set 

 to work to remove these causes. This is the lesson which I am 

 hopeful this treatise and its hypothesis will teach, and if it 

 will only be the means of making the man in the street take 

 a greater interest in the science of evolution, which is the only 

 unerring source of true religious information, albeit that we 

 are only just commencing to realise the lessons it contains 



