Introduction 1 5 



and intensity of want with its concomitant physical 

 and moral degradation among the masses of the people, 

 I should hail the advent of some kindly comet, which 

 would sweep the whole affair away, as a desirable 

 consummation " ; when we recall these words, and 

 realise " the sorrow and the sighing of the world," it 

 is time to investigate the laws which are said to allow 

 of no escape from the present misery and to test their 

 infallibility or otherwise. 



The question at once arises : " Is a higher evolution 

 possible to man ? If so, how is it to be obtained ? Is 

 it actually in process now ? " We all know that in our 

 Western civilisation, hotwithstanding the awfulness of 

 the condition of thfe " submerged tenth," or, as we 

 might more justly sjiy, the submerged third, a social 

 amelioration is going on, slow it is, to be sure, but 

 it is there ; and the standard of living is rising almost 

 imperceptibly. The movement in this direction is gain- 

 ing strength, and, without fear of contradiction, we 

 are entitled to say, will gain momentum of such force 

 that ere long it will prove irresistible. 



In regard to the evolution of man, we think history 

 teaches that physically and intellectually he cannot be 

 said to have reached a higher development than he 

 had attained between two and three thousand years 

 ago, during the period of the great Greek civilisation 

 when Plato, Socrates, Sophocles, Phidias, and many 

 other great names too numerous to mention, enriched 

 that marvellous age. If that is so, is there any further 

 form of evolution possible ? We are of opinion that 

 Mr. Benjamin Kidd, in his book " Social Evolution," 

 has proved that since the dawn of the Christian era 

 a process of evolution has been going on which has 

 moulded the history of our Western civilisation, and 

 is now, more markedly than ever before, influencing the 

 social welfare of humanity. In other words, a spiritual 



