APPENDIX. 567 



that it is too extensive or abstruse for popular reading, or too expensive, or, 

 possibly, that it has been published many years, and may be out of print, or 

 likely to be soon superseded. The books named here are standard works, easy 

 to read and understand. 



All these books can be obtained at the prices named, either by ordering from 

 the nearest book store or by remitting the amount direct to the publisher, who 

 will send them postage paid. 



I have roughly classified the publications under some of the headings of the 

 Books of this volume. Subjects run into each other so much that no exact 

 classification can easily be made. 



THE LARGER ASPECTS OF FARM LIFE. 



This Book consists of a brief exposition of accepted opinion as to the 

 social tendencies of our race. Literature upon this subject is abundant, if not 

 excessive, but I know of no publication, other than the brief statement of the 

 text, which singles out the farmer and his interests for special discussion. The 

 reader, however, who desires to look into the subject more deeply may be aided 

 by the following suggestions: — 



The doctrine which we call Evolution is a growth which blossomed and 

 fructified in the writings of Charles Darwin,* whose patient investigations, 

 extended over many years, supplied the first data which were generally accepted 

 as an adequate physical basis of the doctrine. His conclusions, advanced 

 tentatively, and with a modesty unusual even in a great scholar, have been 

 abundantly justified by the results of the labors of two generations of investi- 

 gators, but his great book — "The Origin of Species " — has never been super- 

 seded, and is not likely to be. The student who desires to acquire any adequate 

 conception of the doctrine of evolution as applied to the moral, social, and 

 spiritual world, will do best to begin with the " Origin of Species." There 

 must be some basis of fact upon which to reason intelligently. This is best 

 supplied by a study of the physical history of the development of the existing 

 forms of vegetable and animal life; and the original study, when confirmed, 

 as in this case, by the observations of all later observers, is always the best. It 

 has a certain life which is necessarily wanting in all subsequent discussion. 



" The Origin of Species " may be obtained in the United States in editions 

 as stated below. 



The collection and digestion of the facts which form the physical basis of 

 evolution possibly mark the limit of the powers of the human intellect in 

 that direction. The phenomena of social evolution are so vast and varied 

 that it seems impossible to collect, classify, and comprehend them in any such 

 manner as to make of them a sound basis of inductive reasoning. Mr. Herbert 

 Spencer (" Principles of Sociology ") has done, perhaps, all that can be done in 

 this direction, but it does not satisfy the mind as do the physical facts collected 

 by Darwin and his successors. To me, and probably to most men, the doctrine 



*>rr. Darwin was by no means the first to iidvocato the doctrine of evolution of 

 species. 



