All this starry knowledge
was of little or no importance compared to that of our relationship
with all the infinitely various forms of life that share the earth
with us. Yet it was not till the second half of the nineteenth century
that this great, almost self-evident truth had won a hearing in the
world!
No doubt this is a common experience: no sooner has the inquirer been
driven to accept a new doctrine than it takes complete possession of
his mind, and has not then the appearance of a strange and unwelcome
guest, but rather that of a familiar friendly one, and is like a long-
established housemate. I suppose the explanation is that when we throw
open the doors to the new importunate visitor, it is virtually a
ceremony, since the real event has been already accomplished, the
guest having stolen in by some other way and made himself at home in
the sub-conscious mind. Insensibly and inevitably I had become an
evolutionist, albeit never wholly satisfied with natural selection as
the only and sufficient explanation of the change in the forms of
life. And again, insensibly and inevitably, the new doctrine has led
to modifications of the old religious ideas and eventually to a new
and simplified philosophy of life. A good enough one so far as this
life is concerned, but unhappily it takes no account of another, a
second and perdurable life without change of personality.
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