Here again—in my chapters on Science—though some expressions remain which are now out of date, I have thought it best to leave them as originally written: the meanings and general conclusions being still valid and as they were. It will be seen that the general drift of these chapters is to point the moral that the true field of science is to be found in Life, and that the best way to know things is to experience their meaning and to identify oneself with them through Action. From a study on these principles will ultimately emerge a Science truly humane and creative, masterful, and capable of building a true home for men—instead of the feverish, spectral and self-deluding thing which has usurped the name up to now.
Something the same will happen with the conception of Morality. The abstract codes on this subject, which have wrought so much havoc by their fatal intrusion on the field of human Life, are rapidly fading away. These ghosts, like the ghosts of Nature's "Laws," are receiving their quietus. And the general outline which was suggested in "The Defence of Criminals" has now been traced more positively in the chapter on "The New Morality" inserted at the end of the present volume. Morality has at last to become truly human, and the real expression of our organic need. Man has to be liberated from the cramps and suppressions and fixations which have hitherto paralysed him in the moral field. He has to emerge from the swathing bands of his pupal stage into the free air of heaven, and to become in the highest sense self-determining and creative.
Thus three things, (1) the realisation of a new order of Society, in closest touch with Nature, and in which the diseases of class-domination and Parasitism will have finally ceased; (2) the realisation of a Science which will no longer be a mere thing of the brain, but a part of Actual Life; and (3) the realisation of a Morality which will signalise and express the vital and organic unity of man with his fellows—these three things will become the heralds of a new era of humanity—an era which will possibly prefer not to call itself by the name of Civilisation.
In order to corroborate and confirm the first paper in the book an Appendix has now been added containing notes and data on the life and customs of many "uncivilised" peoples; for much of which Appendix I am indebted to the assistance of my widely-read and resourceful friend, E. Bertram Lloyd.
E. C.
December, 1920.
CONTENTS
| PAGE | ||
| Preface To Complete Edition | [7] | |
| Civilisation: Its Cause and Cure | [15] | |
| Modern Science: A Criticism | [79] | |
| The Science of the Future: A Forecast | [120] | |
| Defence of Criminals: A Criticism of Morality | [143] | |
| Exfoliation: Lamarck versus Darwin | [181] | |
| Custom | [206] | |
| A Rational and Humane Science | [219] | |
| The New Morality | [243] | |
| Appendix—being Notes on Some of the Characteristics and Customs of Pre-Civilised Peoples | [265] | |