THE OLD RIDDLE AND THE NEWEST ANSWER
The Lord St. Alban would say to some philosophers—"Gentlemen, nature isa labyrinth, in which the very haste you move with, will make you loseyour way."
Bacon, Apophthegms.
THE OLD RIDDLE
AND THE NEWEST
ANSWER
BY
JOHN GERARD, S.J., F.L.S.
FOURTH EDITION
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON,
NEW YORK, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA
1907
| Preface |
| Preface To The Second Edition |
| Preface To The Third Edition |
| Contents |
| Appendix |
| Index |
| Footnotes |
ROEHAMPTON:
PRINTED BY JOHN GRIFFIN.
PREFACE
THE enemies of Science are not the philistines alone—if any stillremain—who would muzzle or stifle her. More numerous and dangerous arethose—professedly of her own household—who ascribe to her pretensionsof which she herself knows nothing, and strive to make her responsiblefor a philosophy entirely beyond her scope. With this object efforts areassiduously made to popularize the idea that nothing in heaven or earthis beyond her ken, and that she has rendered all such beliefs impossibleas alone can satisfy the deeper cravings of humanity. At the same timethe very brilliance of her achievements is apt to dazzle our eyes,blinding them to the extremely narrow limits of the field in which shecan operate, and making us rush to the conclusion that she has solvedthe riddle which from the beginning of time Nature has offered to everythinking mind,—or at least that what her search-light cannot illuminemust for ever remain unknowable.
How far such assumptions are rational, it is the object of the presentenquiry to examine by means of the evidence furnished by Science herselfin her own regard.
I have to thank Mr. W. E. Darwin for permission to use the illustrationof feathers of the Argus Pheasant from his illustrious father's Descentof Man, and for the loan of blocks for the purpose. Through thecourtesy of Messrs. Macmillan I am allowed to copy a portion of theplate in the late Professor Huxley's Lectures on Evolution,illustrating his pedigree of the Horse. If I forbear to mention otherswho have kindly supplied me with information, it is only lest it mightbe supposed that they a