eglected concern,
invariably sees to it that no individuals are allowed to be produced by
any species unless they have survival-value, a phrase which always
means, in the upshot, value for the survival of the race--whether as
parents, or foster-parents, protectors of the parents, feeders or slaves
thereof. Our primary purpose throughout being practical, it is
impossible to devote unlimited time and space to proceeding formally
through the known forms of life in order to marshal all the proofs or a
tithe of them, that all individuals are invented and tolerated by Nature
for parenthood or its service.

We shall in due course consider the peculiar significance of this
proposition for the case of woman--a significance so radical for our
present argument, even to its _minutiae_ of practical living, that it
cannot be too early or too thoroughly insisted upon. But before we
proceed to the special case of woman it is well that we should clearly
perceive as a general guiding truth, which will never fail us, either in
interpretation, prediction, or instruction, the unfailing gaze of
Nature, as manifested in the world of life, towards the future. There is
no truth more significant for our interpretation of the meaning of the
Universe, or at least of our planetary life: there is none more relevant
to the fate of empires, and therefore to the interests of the
enlightened patriot: there is none more worthy to be taken to heart by
the individual of either sex and of any age, adolescent or centenarian,
as the secret of life's happiness, endurance, and worth. It may be
permitted, then, briefly to survey the main truths, and, therefore, the
main teachings of the past, as they may be read by those who seek in the
facts of life the key to its meaning and its use.

CHAPTER II

THE LIFE OF THE WORLD TO COME

When we survey the past of the earth as science has revealed it to us,
we gain some conceptions which will help us in our judgments as to what
this phenomenon of human life may signify in the future. We are
accustomed to look upon the earth as aged, but these terms are only
relative; and if we compare our own planet with its neighbours in the
solar system, we shall have good reason to suppose that, though the past
of the earth is very prolonged, its future will probably be far more so.
As for life--and we must think not only of human life, but of life as a
planetary phenomenon--that is necessarily much more recent than the
f