of the visible universe. In this they entered, at the opening
of the century, upon an almost virgin field, which they have wrought
with great diligence and with remarkable results. It is very possible,
however, that in the twentieth century no such undivided allegiance will
be given to the phenomena of matter, but that the attention of
scientists will be largely diverted from the physical to the psychical
field of investigation, which may prove to be a far broader and more
intricate domain than we now have any conception of.

Psychical phenomena have attracted some attention during the recent
century. One by one the problems of hypnotism, unconscious cerebration,
double consciousness, telepathy, spiritism, and the like, all at first
set down as unworthy of consideration, have forced themselves upon the
attention of observers, and each of them has been found to present
conditions amply worthy of investigation. This work has hitherto been
performed by occasional individuals, but the number of workers in
experimental psychics is steadily increasing, and their domain of
research broadening, and we may reasonably look forward to results
approaching, perhaps exceeding, in interest those reached in material
investigation.

There is a whole world before us, that of the mind and its phenomena,
fully equal in interest and importance to the world of matter, and
presenting as numerous and difficult problems. Hitherto it has largely
been dealt with from the ideal or metaphysical standpoint; only recently
has it been subjected to physical analysis, and already with striking
results. During the century before us it is likely to attract a wide and
active circle of investigators, with what results it is impossible to
predict. This is the only way in which the problem of the existence or
non-existence of a spiritual life can be solved to the satisfaction of
those of a scientific turn of mind, and this solution must be left to
the future to attain.

In the present work we are concerned with man's past rather than his
future. It is what man has come from, not what he is going to, that
forms the subject of our inquiries. We have been led into these remarks
simply as an outcome of a brief consideration of man's relations to the
spiritual element of the universe, and may close our work with the
suggestion that the problem of human evolution may be immensely greater
than that involved in the study of the ancestry of man.

THE DAWN OF