4 The Morality of Nature 



of these newer view points, in such a way, and with such sug- 

 gestions, as will help the constructive reasoning of the reader. 

 It is believed that a real need exists and a true desire pre- 

 vails, for more familiarity with the new science, which now, 

 instead of being general, is unintentionally made the privilege 

 of a class, by the technicality of its expression. Both in 

 research and in philosophy the doctors use vocabularies and 

 one might almost say languages, which are unintelligible to 

 all but the initiated, and there is a peculiar prejudice in favor 

 of objective facts and an aversion to inference and inductive 

 reasoning. 



So startling destructive truths are presented with a brevity 

 which carries them the farther because of its faultiness, and 

 the fair and true import of them is left unexpressed, partly 

 because such understanding demands longer time, and partly 

 because it is not strictly due from the scientific source, but is 

 properly the work of another type of reasoning, namely the 

 philosophic and metaphysical. 



It is intended, therefore, to address ordinary people in 

 language as ordinary as possible ; and to interpret some parts 

 of the technical facts which bear upon the special subject, 

 which is the conduct of humanity in evolutionary aspect, its 

 beginnings in animal life, and its promotion to and by 

 morality. A scientific and reasoned basis for conduct is 

 thus presented, without any trespass upon or any appeal to, 

 supernaturally inspired authority. It is not assumed to dis- 

 cuss the value of knowledge coming from sources other than 

 normal. The possibility of the existence of such a source 

 would be conceded in a pursuit of the philosophical idea 

 which underlies this work, which leads to the conception of 



