Excerpt from An Ethical System Based on the Laws of Nature The author of this patient, sincere, and searching work has done me the honour to ask for a preface from my pen. The task of writing it comes when I am almost over weighted with other work on behalf of the physical and moral protection of the men who are now giving their all in order that the principles of doing justice and loving mercy shall prevail and rule the coming world. Therefore I am more than ever inadequate for the present theme, and I apologise accordingly to M. Deshumbert and the reader. It needs no special study nor discernment, however, to see that this book is a real contribution to the didactic literature, as yet so scanty and inchoate, of the Religion of Life. The days when evolution - an idea as old as the Buddha and Heracleitus - was thought to be new, and therefore fit for fashionable argument, are long past. The twentieth century is making history so rapidly that we are in danger of forgetting the colossal record of the nineteenth in destroying lies and establishing truth. But the line of Spencer and Darwin is not extinct. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.