6 PREFACE 



much new light on a number of the most impor- 

 tant problems in ethics and public policy, which 

 are pressing so urgently for solution in this present 

 age. 



Owing to the remoteness of the period under con- 

 sideration, a number of the conclusions reached in 

 these essays could not be corroborated by observa- 

 tions and experimental tests. This, however, can- 

 not impair their value or validity. For rational 

 minds do not, for such reasons, reject conclusions, 

 based on sound premises, explaining facts otherwise 

 not rationally explicable. If they did, then "the 

 theory of the infinity of space," "of the eternity of 

 time," "of the indestructibility of matter and of 

 force," the belief that "two parallel lines never 

 meet, no matter how far extended," "the nebular 

 hypothesis," "the universality of the laws of nature," 

 and many other equally essential parts of rational 

 science and thought, would have to be rejected along 

 with the conclusions reached in these essays, for 

 none of these can be verified by observation or experi- 

 mental tests. Nothing has been taken for granted 

 in the argument except the proposition regarding 

 derivation or descent stated in the third para- 

 graph, Chapter I. Two paragraphs immediately 

 after contain a brief summary of the enormous 

 amount of careful investigation, verifying evidence, 

 and exhaustive, unsparing discussion this proposi- 

 tion has received far beyond any other ever pre- 

 sented to mankind. From this proposition and 



