14 Introduction 



is reported to have said : " Let them take the great 

 names of history — the great conquerors, the Caesars, 

 the Charlemagnes, the Napoleons, the Wellingtons — 

 the names before whom they all bent the knee. They, 

 willingly or not, unconsciously or not, had been banes 

 and injuries to the generations in which they lived. 

 Let them take one single name from their profession, 

 that of Lister, and balance it against those great 

 historical figures who had devoted their lives and 

 energies to conquest and to bloodshed. Did any 

 intelligent human being hesitate to which side of the 

 balance the universal gratitude of mankind was due ? " 

 In this connection it may not be inappropriate to 

 recall the fact that Mr. Gladstone, in one of his inspired 

 moments, looked forward with prophetic eye to the 

 time when the medical man would be the prime factor 

 in the State. 



Believing that Darwinism, Malthusianism, and 

 natural selection — so long the accepted creeds of 

 science — have been weighed in the balances and found 

 wanting, our next endeavour was to look for some hope 

 of a brighter future for humanity, and this we found in 

 the study of history, which revealed a spiritual evolu- 

 tion, of slow advance certainly, and found its origin 

 among men, with the advent of the altruism of the 

 teachings of Jesus. 



When we recall the words of Huxley, probably in 

 himself the finest combination of scientific attain- 

 ment, logical faculty, and honesty of purpose, the world 

 has ever known : "I do not hesitate to express the 

 opinion that if there is no hope of a large improve- 

 ment of the condition of the greater part of the human 

 family ; if it is true that the increase of knowledge, 

 the winning of a great dominion over nature, which is 

 its consequence, and the wealth which follows upon 

 that dominion, are to make no difference in the extent 



