234 THE THRESHOLD OF EVOLUTION 



Say to yourself, " If I had taken this advice I might have 

 had a harder life at the start (so had Jack) than I have had, 

 but then I might have been a greater success. " Take an old 

 crow's advice; I am sure you would have been, for there is 

 no more certain road to wisdom than troubles faced and con- 

 quered, and no royal road to attain the courage necessary for 

 success, but adversity bravely met and overcome. So, if you 

 had put your pride in your pocket, as Jack did, you might 

 have been a greater success than he has been. It is never too 

 late to mend ; try and see if it is not worth the trouble. 



An ancestor of mine, who was considered one of the wise 

 men of his day in the reign of Henry VII., used a saying that 

 became a proverb : " We are all too proud, from the King to 

 the beggar, particularly the beggar." I think it is as true 

 to-day as it was six hundred years ago, and if the beggar would 

 only acknowledge that he is the failure, it would be easier to 

 govern the world, yet I suppose you might as well try and find 

 a boy of nineteen who did not consider he knew more than his 

 father. 



One of the thoughts that has most troubled me in writing 

 this treatise is the fact that it entails such a complete revolution 

 of previous ideas, ideals and beliefs that I have hardly known 

 how to approach the subject without depriving the reader of 

 too many past beliefs and opinions that have been the anchors 

 of past ages, and which must be the principal masts to which 

 he must pin his colours for generations yet to come. I 

 now feel that, much as I have tried to avoid doing this, I have 

 failed on this score, and will certainly 'be worthy of the reader's 

 condemnation. On this point I have known all through that 

 I was not a fit person for the work I have undertaken, and 

 must therefore ask the reader to be considerate when passing 

 sentence upon me, and to remember that we are none of us 

 perfect in all respects, or at all classes of work, and that a 

 humble -confession should be a just claim for ample forgiveness. 

 It is only the logical part of the work that comes in my pro- 

 fession, details I must leave to the scientific student. I may 

 here state that if I have trodden ruthlessly upon the pet corns 

 of his cherished beliefs, I am sure, be he who he may, I 

 have not written what I have without treading still more 

 heavily on my own pet beliefs and opinions. But I would 

 have been unfit to place the subject in a logical form or 



