INTRODUCTORY. 17 



welfare, become not only legitimate but imperative 

 subjects of research. The more man knows of nature 

 and nature's methods, the less wUI he be inclined to 

 disregard these methods ; an d the m ore he knows of 

 nature and nature's laws, the higher his conceptions 

 of creative^ wisdom and perfection. These laws and 

 methods may be studied in connection with the in- 

 organic world, or with the lower forms of organised 

 existence ; but they assume a higher interest and leave 

 a deeper impress when viewed in relation to man — 

 the place he holds, and the place he is destined to 

 hold, in the great progressional scheme of creation. 

 " Know thyself," is an injunction, physically and 

 morally, as imperative on the race as it is on the 

 individual. 



It is of no avail to tell us, as some would vainly 

 do, that man's chief business is with the present 

 and the duties which lie before him in daily life, 

 and that it is of little moment to him whether his 

 race has inherited this globe for six thousand or 

 for sixty thousand years, or whether he shall con- 

 tinue to inherit it in increasing or decreasing 

 variety. We are compelled, by an irresistible im- 

 pulse of our nature, to look backward to the past 

 as well as to look forward to the future ; and neces- 

 sarily so, since the main business of the present is to 

 draw from the past, that it may be prepared for the 

 C 



