236 THE THRESHOLD OF EVOLUTION 



ception of it, and place it in a logical order has been no easy 

 task. But I have felt that if I did not get my first impressions 

 in the infantile nudity of their early birth or conception written 

 down and printed, I should be tempted to write and re-write 

 them, and in my efforts to prove and demonstrate them, would 

 lose the most salient parts of the logical sequence before I 

 could get it into shape. I have, therefore, decided to 

 let it go to press in its present unfinished state, and so give 

 the public every chance of passing the worst possible verdict 

 upon my efforts, feeling sure that my reader's comments and 

 opinions will do much to indicate the errors I shall have to 

 correct, or the portions on which I shall have to enlarge, and 

 the manner in which my Hypothesis requires to be further 

 illustrated and demonstrated. I, therefore, offer the reader 

 these, and any more apologies he may demand for any offence 

 I may have given, for it was not my intention to offend. 



There is a great deal I feel I shall have to devote 

 more study and thought to before I would dare to form any 

 absolute opinions on the subject myself. All I have been 

 able to do in the short space of eighteen months or less is to 

 try and evolve ideas and take glances, as it were, at the sub- 

 ject from different points of view as my Hypothesis caused 

 them to rise like the imperfect pictures of a mirage before 

 my astonished mental vision. I just took my pen up and 

 scribbled the impressions they created as each mystic view 

 arose and dissolved itself one after the other before my mind's 

 eye. Some, I admit, have created black and horrible visions 

 that deeper thought may dispel by wiser views, and beautify 

 with softer lights when handled by wiser and more artistic 

 minds and pens. But believing as I do that there is in the 

 abstract no such thing as evil in creation, and that good and 

 evil are but comparisons we measure and adjust so as to 

 compare the relative opposing forces of evolution one with 

 another at the particular stages, days or ages of evolution ; 

 I have tried to get my reader to forget past beliefs and past 

 ideas of good and 'evil for a few moments, that he may be 

 the better able to weigh and to comprehend the logical deduc- 

 tions and demonstrations I have placed before him. But per- 

 sonally I do not intend to alter many of my past beliefs, except 

 in such cases as the full force of logic and proof and experi- 

 ence may warrant, and I strongly desire him not to leave the 



