AND OTHER ESSAYS (NEWLY-ENLARGED AND COMPLETE EDITION) BY EDWARD CARPENTER AUTHOR OF "TOWARDS DEMOCRACY," "MY DAYS AND DREAMS," ETC. LONDON: GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD. RUSKIN HOUSE, 40 MUSEUM STREET, W.C.1 First Edition, June 1889 ; Second Edition, December 1890 ; Third Edition, November 1893 ; Fourth Edition, July 1895 ; Fifth Edition, September 1897 ; Sixth Edition, October 1900 ; Seventh Edition, July 1902 ; Eighth Edition, March 1903 ; Ninth Edition, January 1906 ; Tenth Edition, Janu

In looking over this volume, first published in 1889, with a view to a final Edition, I am glad to note that after all there is not much in it requiring alteration. Considering that the original issue took place more than 30 years ago, I had thought that the great changes in scientific and philosophic thought which have taken place during that period would probably have rendered "out of date" a good deal of the book. As a matter of fact, the first paper—that on Civilisation—was given as a lectur

However all this may be, the question immediately before us—having established the more healthy, though more limited, condition of the pre-civilisation peoples—is, why this lapse or fall? What is the meaning of this manifold and intensified manifestation of Disease—physical, social, intellectual, and moral? What is its place and part in the great whole of human evolution? And this involves us in a digression, which must occupy a few pages, on the nature of Health. When we come to analyse the con

The result then of our digression is to show that Health—in body or mind—means unity, integration as opposed to disintegration. In the animals we find this physical unity existing to a remarkable degree. An almost unerring instinct and selective power rules their actions and organisation. Thus a cat before it has fallen (say before it has become a very wheezy fireside pussy!) is in a sense perfect. The wonderful consent of its limbs as it runs or leaps, the adaptation of its muscles, the exactne

And now, by way of a glimpse into the future—after this long digression what is the route that man will take? This is a subject that I hardly dare tackle. "The morning wind ever blows," says Thoreau, "the poem of creation is uninterrupted—but few are the ears that hear it." And how can we, gulfed as we are in this present whirlpool, conceive rightly the glory which awaits us? No limits that our present knowledge puts need alarm us; the impossibilities will yield very easily when the time comes;

(See p. 26 ) The following remarks by Mr. H. B. Cotterill on the natives around Lake Nyassa, among whom he lived at a time, 1876-8, when the region was almost unvisited, may be of interest. "In regard of merely 'animal' development and well-being, that is in the delicate perfection of bodily faculties (perceptive), the African savage is as a rule incomparably superior to us. One feels like a child, utterly dependent on them, when travelling or hunting with them. It is true that many may be found

"I fear I have very imperfectly succeeded in expressing my strong conviction that, before a rigorous logical scrutiny, the Reign of Law will prove to be an unverified hypothesis, the Uniformity of Nature an ambiguous expression, the certainty of our scientific inferences to a great extent a delusion." (Stanley Jevons, Principles of Science , p. ix.) [17] See note , p. 119. [18] Since the above was written there has certainly been a great change, and the dogmatic confidence in the verity of the s

"Whatever is off the hinges of custom is believed to be also off the hinges of reason; though how unreasonably, for the most part, God knows."— Montaigne. Every human being grows up inside a sheath of custom, which enfolds it as the swathing clothes enfold the infant. The sacred customs of its early home, how fixed and immutable they appear to the child! It surely thinks that all the world in all times has proceeded on the same lines which bound its tiny life. It regards a breach of these rules

BOOKS BY EDWARD CARPENTER ANGELS' WINGS: Essays on Art and its Relation to Life. Illustrated. Large Cr. 8vo, 6s. 6d. net. [ Fifth Edition. ART OF CREATION, THE: Essays on the Self and its Powers. Cr. 8vo, 5s. net. [ Fourth Edition. CHANTS OF LABOUR: a Songbook for the People, with frontispiece and cover by Walter Crane. ( Reprinting. ) [ Fifth Edition. CIVILIZATION: ITS CAUSE AND CURE. Essays on Modern Science. Cr. 8vo. Original Edition. Cloth, 3s. 6d. net, and Limp Cloth, 2s. 6d. net. [ Sixteen