PREFACE. 



In now carrying my study of mental evolution into the 

 province of human psychology, it is desirable that I should 

 say a few words to indicate the scope and intention of this 

 the major portion of my work. For it is evident that " Mental 

 Evolution in Man " is a subject comprehending so enormous 

 a field that, unless some lines of limitation are drawn within 

 which its discussion is to be confined, no one writer could 

 presume to deal with it. 



The lines, then, which I have laid down for my own 

 guidance are these. My object is to seek for the principles 

 and causes of mental evolution in man, first as regards 

 the origin of human faculty, and next as regards the several 

 main branches into which faculties distinctively human after- 

 wards ramified and developed. In order as far as possible 

 to gain this object, it has appeared to me desirable to take 

 large or general views, both of the main trunk itself, and also of 

 its sundry branches. Therefore I have throughout avoided the 

 temptation of following any of the branches into their smaller 

 ramifications, or of going into the details of progressive 

 development. These, I have felt, are matters to be dealt 

 with by others who are severally better qualified for the task, 

 whether their special studies have reference to language, 

 archaeology, technicology, science, literature, art, politics, 

 morals, or religion. But, in so far as I shall subsequently 

 have to deal with these subjects, I will do so with the purpose 

 of arriving at general principles bearing upon mental evolu- 

 tion, rather than with that of collecting facts or opinions for 



