E-text prepared by John Hagerson, Kevin Handy, and Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders
In the present volume I have endeavored to set before the reader theconception of a sequence of creative action commencing with the formationof the globe and culminating in a vista of infinite possibilitiesattainable by every one who follows up the right line for theirunfoldment.
I have endeavored to show that, starting with certain incontrovertiblescientific facts, all these things logically follow, and that therefore,however far these speculations may carry us beyond our past experience,they nowhere break the thread of an intelligible connection of cause andeffect.
I do not, however, offer the suggestions here put forward in any otherlight than that of purely speculative reasoning; nevertheless, no advancein any direction can be made except by speculative reasoning going back tothe first principles of things which we do know and thence deducing theconditions under which the same principles might be carried further andmade to produce results hitherto unknown. It is to this method of thoughtthat we owe all the advantages of civilization from matches andpost-offices to motor-cars and aeroplanes, and we may therefore beencouraged to hope such speculations as the present may not be withouttheir ultimate value. Relying on the maxim that Principle is not bound byPrecedent we should not limit our expectations of the future; and if ourspeculations lead us to the conclusion that we have reached a point wherewe are not only able, but also required, by the law of our ownbeing, to take a more active part in our personal evolution thanheretofore, this discovery will afford us a new outlook upon life and widenour horizon with fresh interests and brightening hopes.
If the thoughts here suggested should help any reader to clear somemental obstacles from his path the writer will feel that he has not writtento no purpose. Only each reader must think out these suggestions forhimself. No writer or lecturer can convey an idea into the minds ofhis audience. He can only put it before them, and what they will make of itdepends entirely upon themselves--assimilation is a process which no onecan carry out for us.
To the kindness of my readers on both sides of the Atlantic, and inAustralia and New Zealand, I commend this little volume, not, indeed,without a deep sense of its many shortcomings, but at the same timeencouraged by the generous indulgence extended to my previous books.
T.T.
June, 1910.