The Nature of Man: Studies in Optimistic Philosophy

In progress towards the goal, nature will have to be con* suited continuously. Already, in the case of the epheme- rids, nature has produced a complete cycle of normal life ending in natural death. In the problem of his own fate, man must not be content with the gifts of nature ; he must direct them by his own efforts. Just as he has been able to modify the nature of animals and plants, man must attempt to modify his own constitution, so as to readjust its disharmonies.

Breeders form a conception of the ideal result when they are about to attempt the production of some new variety which shall be pleasing esthetically and of service to man. Next, they study the existing individual variations in animals and plants on which they wish to work, and from which they will select with the minutest care. The ideal result must have some relation to the constitution of the organisms selected. To modify the human constitution, it will be necessary first, to frame the ideal, and thereafter to set to work with all the resources of science.

If there can be formed an ideal able to unite men in a kind of religion of the future, this ideal must be founded on scientific principles. And if it be true, as has been asserted so often, that man can live by faith alone, the faith must be in the power of science. as a religious ceremony, 164 Abstinence, Hartmann on sexual. Albius, and artificial fertilisation, 20 Alcohol, and length of life, 259 as producer of sclerosis, 247 Altruism, limitations of, 296 Anaesthetics, influence of, compared

quotations from Tyloron, 150 Animism, Tylor on, 138, 139, 140 Anisoplia and light, 36 Annelids, vegetative reproduction of, social instincts of, 105 Ants, sexual disharmonies in, 34 Apes,' compared with man, 42, 43 Appendage, vermiform, of man and frequency of, 68 Apoplexy, phagocytes in, 239 Aristotle, on future life, 169 of the Greeks, 5 Arterial sclerosis, 247 Arteries, in old age, 237 Asceticism, n Atrophy, in old age, 238 on lengthening life, 257 Bacteria of the intestines, 248, 249 Baobab-tree, age of, 266 Baudelaire, on death, 288 Baumann, on microbes in intestines,

Beetles, as food of wasp larvae, 28, 29 Behring, von, on diphtheria, 211 Benares, Buddha's sermon at, 154 Bert, Paul, on treatment of the aged, on intestinal putrefaction, 255 Birds, absence of large intestine in, Brunetiere, on failure of science, 218 Buddha, contempt of women, 9 on science, 219 Burial, of the old, alive, 152 Butschli, on immortality of protozoa, Lejoncourt on, 280 Cerctris, figure of, 28 Chatogaster, vegetative reproduction Chemotaxi?, of sexual cells, 268 Childbirth, ages of women at, 93

on future life, 169 Civilisation, and progress, 292 Cocoons, formation of, 33 Confucius, on ancestor-worship, 145, Conjugation, and immortality, 264 Connective tissue, in old age, 236, 238 Consciousness, relation of to bodily Cruger, on bees and orchids, 23 Cuisine, modern, evils of, 292 Cytotoxic serums, 245 scientific study of, 262 Degeneration, senile, in infusoria, 231 Deniker, a foetus of man and ape, 47 Descartes, on lengthening life, 257 Desire of life, not to be ignored, 228 De Vries, on new species, 57 Diet, as regulated by religious, 162 Digestive system of man, 60 Disease, religious measures against,

Dogs, old age in, 233 D'Holbach, on natural morality, 7 Dragon-tree, of Oratava, 265 Dubois, on Pithecanthropus, 50 Du Bois Reymond, on agnosticism, Dufour, on wasps. 27 Duhring, a blind optimist, 117 Duncan, Matthews, on childbirth, swarming of, 271 Epicureans, sumntum bcmunt of, 6 Ewald, on microbes in intestines, 251, GENERAL paralysis, symptoms of, in Gerontology, science of old age, 297 Glow-worms, 37 Goal of human life, 300, 301 Gods, of the Greeks, 4 of the Orientals, 4 Goncourt, E. de, quotations on fear

on religion and death, 133 on failure of science, 222 on resignation, 199 as a youthful pessimist, 117 Hassenstein, on childbirths in the young, 283 Heape, on menstruation, 88 Hegel, death from cholera, 120 Heim, on feelings at death, 126 Hell of Chinese Buddhists, 149 Helmholz, on the eye, 78 Henseler, on ages of patriarchs, 259 Hermaphrodidsm, 79, 80 Herminium monorckis, figure of, 26 Huber, on ants, 34 Hufeland, on prolonging life, 258 Humanity, vagueness of conception,

Humboldt, on natural morality, 8 Hunt, on burial of the aged living, Hutcheson, on naturalism, 7 Huxley, on origin of man, 41 Hymen, disharmonies of, 85 senile degeneration of, 231 Insects, compared with vertebrates, JEWISH belief in future life, 142 Justice, in relation to humanity, 112 LACTIC acid, arrests putrefaction, 255 Lady-birds and nectar, 32 Language, as a social band, 297 Lankester, Ray, on centenarians. 259 Lanugo, of human embryo, 62 Larvae, of ephemerids, 276 Lecky, on natural morality, 8 Lejoncourt, on centenarians, 280 Leucocytes and phagocytes, 240 Liberty, future limitation of, 301 Life, duration of, in Biblical times,

modes of lengthening, 257, 258 Light, attractive to insects, 35 Linnaeus, on origin of man, 41 Lister, and antisepsis, 209 Listera ovata, figure of, 32 Loeb, on natural death, 266 Longet, on old age, 234 Longevity, in birds, 232 an optimist, 117 Luminous insects, 37 Luther, Martin, on supernatural Marriage, age at first, 97 Christian views on, 163 early, in primitive races, 86, 90 Matriopathy, 6 May-flies and light, 35 Medicine, advance of, 210 Memory, late development of, 78 Meniere, on bees and orchids, 21 Menstruation, in monkeys, 88, 89

regarded as impure, 92 Merkel, on tissue-changes in old age, Metamorphoses, of ephemerides, 272 Metchnikoff, on blanching of hair, 242 reared without microbes, 249 Meyer-Benfey, on happiness, 198 secretion of, by males, 298 Monkeys, and choice of food, 75 Morality, based on human nature, 9 true foundation of, 289 Mosaic regulations on diet, 162, 163 Moths and light, 35 Miiller, Johannes, on the eye, 78 and morality, early opinions on, 3 Negroes and whites, 109 Nicene Creed, compared with ances- tor-worship, 151 Nirvana, Aurelius and, 175

Optimists generally old men, 117 Origin of man, due to sudden appear- ance of new characters, 57, 59 Orangs, old age in, 233 Orchids, and fertilisation, 19, 20 Orthobiosis, the taste of science, 289 Ostwald, on love of humanity, 296 Ova, immortality of, 267 PAIN, Nordau on, 193 Palingetiia, swarming of, 272 Pantheism, of German poets, 195 Paradise, according to the Talmud, of Chinese Buddhists, 149 Paramecium, conjugation of (figure), division of (figure), 230 Parasites, late evolution of, 18 Parovaria, 80 Parrots, paucity of bacterial flora in,

Pathology, of old age, 278 Patriotism, 295 Pehpaus, figure of, 34 Penis, os, in man and apes, 81 Personality, consciousness of, 160 Pessimism, Byron on, 177 and youth, 117 Pettenkofer, suicide of, 131 Pfeffer, on chemotaxis in cryptogams, Pfliiger, on prolonging life, 258 Pfungst, on meaning of Nirvana, 156 Phagocytes, functions of, 239 inhibited by lactic acid, 255 and poisons, 247 sensibility of, 240 relation of, and religion, 166 tendency of, to become religious,

Pithecanthropus, 50 Placenta, of man and apes, 46 Plague, cause of, 208 Plato, and nobility of man, 4 on pleasure, 6 Plotin, on immortality, 175 Pollinia of orchids, 21 Politicians, incapacity of young, 295 Politics, compared with savage ob- stetrics, 300 sensibility of, 268 Purgatory, in Taoism, 146 Putrefaction, in large intestine; 73, on Marcus Aurelius, 174 Renaissance, art of, 14 Reproduction, not cause of death in ephemerids, 275 | Marcus Aurelius on, 174 Resurrection, primitive belief in, 140 Reville, on Chinese beliel in immor- tality, 145, 146 Rhizotrogus and light, 36 Richet, on failure of science, 222 Rousseau, on age and love of life. 117

on fear of death, 118 Rovighi, on utility of milk diet. 255 Riickert, on death, 195 Rudimentary organs, in man, 59, 60 on social instincts of apes, 105 Schiller, on death, 195 Schopenhauer, and cholera, 120 due to poisons, 247 Scotch clergy on man, 12 Seidlitz, on natural morality, 8 Selenka, on foetus of man and ape, 47 Self-preservation, 113, 275 Seneca, on death, 171 on nature as a guide, 7, 10 Senile decay action of macrophags, importance of phagocytes in, 241 Sensibility, specific, of white blood

of sexual cells, 268 Soured milk, benefits of, 255 Spencer, H., onjpelief in resurrection, Tetanus, microbes of, 256 Thanatology, science of death, 297 Thierfelder, and Nuttall, on germ-free Transfusion of blood-serum, 51 Transmigration of souls, in Buddhism. of souls, Jewish belief in, 144 Trees, death of, 265 Tuberculosis.lmodern science and, 212 Tylor, on ancestor-worship, 150 fertilisation of, 20 Vaccination, 301 Vermiform appendage and disease

Weapons, burial with dead, 139 Weismann, on origin oi death, 266 on immortality of protozoa, 264 Wiedersheim, on human characters. Schopenhauer on, 182 Wisdom teeth, degeneration of, 64, 65 Women, views of Buddha on, 9 Wounds, modern success in healing This work deals with the problem of personality, especially as raised by William James and M. Bergson. If a man imagines himself bound, in defer- ence to science or psychology, to deny the existence of personality, he commits himself to saying " I do not exist." If he shrinks from that absurdity, he must accept personality as a reality : a person is both a subject who knows others and an object of others' knowledge. The bond, however, which holds persons, human and divine, together, cannot be merely intellectual: it must be emotional as well as intellectual — the bond of love.

Foreign Correspondent of the Institute of France Author of " History of Psychology," etc. The author here states the general results of the extended studies in genetic and social science and anthropology made by him and others, and gives a critical account of the history of the interpretation of nature and man, both racial and philosophical. The book offers an Introduction to Philosophy from a new point of view. It contains, also, a valuable glossary of the terms employed in these and similar discussions. '

Assistant Secretary of the British Association for the Advancement of Science No. I / in " History of the Sciences " 76°. Illustrated. 75 cents net This is not a history of geographical explora- tion, though the leading episodes in the advance of our knowledge of the face of the Earth are necessarily referred to in tracing the evolution of geography as a department of science. The author hopes that in the attempt to tell the story of the evolution of geography up to the present day, it will be evident that it is as amenable to scientific methods as any other department of human knowledge, and that it performs important functions which are untouched by any other line of research.

Author of " Problem of the Sexes," etc. Translated from the French by The author considers a subject, the solution of which offers more enticement to the well-wisher of the race than the gold of the Incas did to the treasure-seekers of Spain, who themselves doubt- less looked upon the coveted yellow metal, however mistakenly, as a key to the happiness which all are trying to find. "Amid the noisy tumult of life, amid the dissonance that divides man from man," remarks M. Finot, "the Science of Happiness tries to discover the divine link which binds humanity to happi- ness through the soul and through the union of souls." The author considers the nature of happiness and the means of its attainment, as well as many allied questions.