A PAETING WORD. v 



been swayed by any sentiment other than one of sympathy and respect for all the 

 inhabitants of the universal fatherland. On this ball, that spins so swiftly in 

 space, a grain of sand in infinitude, is it worth while to cherish mutual hatreds ? 



But while taking my place at this standpoint of human solidarity, my work 

 seems still unfinished. Before studying in detail the j)lanetary surface and the 

 peoples inhabiting it, I had tried in another work, The EartJi* to study the life- 

 history of the globe itself, such as it is presented isolatedly, prepared to receive 

 the humanity by which the great body is animated. That work was a sort of 

 introduction to the series of volumes which I now bring to a close. But is not a 

 conclusion still lacking ? 



Man, like the Earth, has his laws. 



Seen from above and from afar, the diversity of features intermingled on the 

 surface of the globe —crests and valleys, meandering waters, shore-lines, heights 

 and depths, superimposed rocks — presents an image which, so far from being 

 chaotic, reveals to him who understands a marvellous picture of harmony and 

 beauty. The man who searchingly surveys this universe, assists at the vast work 

 of incessant creation, always beginning, never ending, and himself sharing by the 

 largeness of his grasp in the eternity of things, he may, like Newton, like Darwin, 

 find the word that sums all up. 



And if the earth seems consistent and simj)le amid the endless complexity of 

 its forms, shall the indwelling humanity, as is often said, be nought but a blind 

 chaotic mass, heaving at hazard, aimless, without an attainable ideal, unconscious 

 of its very destiny ? Migrations in diverse directions, settlements and dispersions, 

 growth and decline of nations, civilisations and decadence, formal ion and displace- 

 ment of vital centres ; are all these, as might seem at the first glance, mere facts, 

 nay, facts unconnected in time, facts whose endless play is uncontrolled by any 

 rhythmical movement giving them a general tendency, which may be expressed 

 by a law ? This it is that it concerns us to know. Is the evolution of man in 

 perfect harmony with the laws of the Earth ? How is he modified vmder the 

 thousand influences of the modifying environment ? Are the vibrations 

 simultaneous, and do they incessantly modulate their tones from age to age ? 



* The Earth : A Descriptive History of the Pliysical Phenomena of the Life of our Globe. By 

 Elisée Eeclus. 



