viii THE WORLD OE LIFE 



last chapter I endeavour to show the purpose of that law of 

 diversity which seems to pervade the whole material Universe. 

 As an '' excursus," I devote Chapter XIX. to a discussion of 

 the nature, extent, and uses of Pain, as strictly deduced from 

 the law of Evolution. Strangely enough, this has never, I 

 believe, been done before ; and it enables us to answer the 

 question — ^' Is Xature Cruel ? " with a decided negative. 



This outline of the varied contents and objects of my book, 

 wdll, I hope, be useful to my readers, and especially to my 

 reviewers, by directing their attention to those parts of the 

 work in which they may be more especially interested. 



I also wish to point out that, however strange and heretical 

 some of my beliefs and suggestions may appear to be, I claim 

 that they have only been arrived at by a careful study of the 

 facts and conditions of the problem. I mention this because 

 numerous critics of my former work — Man's Place in the 

 Universe (to which this may be considered supplementary) — ■ 

 treated the conclusions there arrived at as if they were wholly 

 matters of opinion or imagination, and founded (as were their 

 own) on personal likes or dislikes, without any appeal to evi- 

 dence or to reasoning. 



I have now only to express my thanks to the friends and 

 strangers who have kindly assisted me with numerical and 

 other data for various portions of my work ; as well as to those 

 publishers and authors who have allowed me to use the en- 

 gravings or photographs with which my book is illustrated. 

 They are in, every case (I believe) acknowledged in the text, 

 or on the various plates and figures. 



Broadstone, Wimborne, 

 November 1910. 



