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PREFACE vii
which is demanded at every step of what we term growth,
and often look upon as so simple and natural a process
as to require no explanation ; and, lastly, an ultimate
Purpose, in the very existence of the whole vast life-world
in all its long course of evolution throughout the eons of
geological time. This Purpose, which alone throws light on
many of the mysteries of its mode of evolution, I hold to be
the development of Man, the one crowning product of the
whole cosmic process of life-development ; the only being
which can to some extent comprehend nature ;
which can
perceive and trace out her modes of action ; which can
appreciate the hidden forces and motions everywhere at
work, and can deduce from them a supreme and over-
ruling Mind as their necessary cause.
For those who accept some such view as I have indicated,
I show (in Chapters XV. and XVI.) how strongly it is sup-
ported and enforced by a long series of facts and co-relations
which we can hardly look upon as all purely accidental
coincidences. Such are the infinitely varied products of
living things which serve man's purposes and man's alone
not only by supplying his material wants, and by gratifying
his higher tastes and emotions, but as rendering possible
of those advances in the arts and in science which we
many
claim to be the highest proofs of his superiority to the
brutes, as well as of his advancing civilisation.
From a consideration of these better-known facts I
proceed (in Chapter XVII.) to an exposition of the mystery
of cell-growth ; to a consideration of the elements in their
special relation to the earth itself and to the life-world ;
while in the 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