PREFACE.

"Man, that is born of woman, is of few days and full of trouble; he cometh forth as a flower, and is cut down; he fleeth like a shadow, and continueth not."

This volume is the product of many years of careful study and intense mental labor, under the most trying circumstances possible for an author to be placed, being without home, money, sympathy or assistance in the self-imposed task; besides a strong opposition to encounter at almost every step has had the effect to delay its publication.

But financial embarrassment has been the impeeding force and the delaying power, since having been compelled to go forth each day to work for bread, and writing only when not driven to earn food, and that too in the most depressed financial condition ever known to the people of the far west.

These, together with a helpless family of motherless children offered no assistance to the circumstances above mentioned.

In the face of these facts it would be a surprise to the author if the book was more commendable than otherwise, and though it is far inferior to what the author intended it should be, it is nevertheless all the circumstances would permit. It ought to have been through the press three years earlier, but owing to the above named circumstances it has been delayed.

I have tried to enlist the attention of all classes, from the millionaire down to the servant girl of ebon hue, but failed in each and every attempt.

I tried nearly, if not quite all of the printers south of Sacramento to San Diego, California, but always met with the same kind of encouragement, which was: to try some one else, which I did. I even wrote East with no better success; but I made up my mind in the beginning that it took all these mild ingredients to make up the awful dose of disappointments, which has in the past, and still must be taken by all those, who are foolish enough to try to introduce a new idea to the world. I think it is pretty nearly true what a gentleman in San Francisco once remarked concerning new ideas; that is, that it cost 40,000 dollars and required two generations to get a new idea before the American people. In view of this fact I concluded to write for future generations, and let the book bide its time, for money I have none, and $40,000 friends are not hovering conveniently near with stringless sacks and bursting with fullness. The foregoing are all of the apologies I have to offer to the considerate reader.

But some of my sympathizing friends have hinted that they would like to add a word of apology to my own, for no other reason than to explain that I do not rush to the popular trough, drink with the herd and bellow for coin.

But as that would be a very unnatural pleasure for me to enjoy, I must deem all such apologies out

of place. Had I consulted public opinion this book would never have been written. And now it is too late to join the popular procession, however pleasant and profitable it might be to myself and others.

I respect public as well as private opinions when they are right, but I entertain no respect for voluntary slavery in religion, henchmen in politics, nor sycophants in science. I have a profound regard for truth, but no respect for falsehood nor deception. I reverence no doctrine, dogma, subject nor science, because some one else did or does. I only admire them for the truth they embrace. I object to wrong whereever I find it, and accept nothing on authority. No man is so good or great, that I fear to criticise his errors, nor so bad that I cannot accept the good he offers. We are only mortals at best, ruled by the same natural laws, differing only in intensity.

There is no royal name nor blood,
That men should love or fear,
But royal deeds above the clouds
Should make their memory dear.

A physician once remarked that it was a daring thing to do, to question the authority of the old teachers on physiological questions. I replied, that it required no special degree of courage to oppose an error after it has been proven one, that only cowards feared to speak in behalf of truth.

Books are too often written, not to defend truth nor to advance the cause of humanity, but to catch dollars. I test all metals in my crucible and try them as silver is tried. If I am in error on any point in

this profound philosophy, the reader may be doubly assured that it was not maliciously nor superstitiously obtained, for I never possessed a pet idea that I could not release from the cage of my fancy in a moments warning, if necessary.

I sometimes advance ideas which I cannot support excetp in a logical way, but I make no assertions to-day, that I fear may be overthrown tomorrow, but in case I should, I will thank the one who does the kindly act.

I am awake to the fact, that world-building and life-creating is not a safe nor sure business to engage in during this age. It would do for Moses and other speculative minds to attempt such hazardous things in other days when people were imbued with faith and strangers to the facts of nature.

But in a scientific age like this, when the mental status is reversed and facts come first, the prospect for success in gaining public recognition is not so flattering as formerly. Nevertheless I am going to launch a theory on the turbid waters of chance, and try its powers of endurance in weathering the storms of criticisms from scientific elements.

I beg no points, nor ask for charity; my work is open to criticism.

If it is too weak to withstand the buffets of the breakers, it must succumb to their fury, and be dashed to pieces on the rock bound shore of the sea of science. The reader will learn, before advancing very far in the perusal of this work, that the author is not a

Darwinian evolutionist, but a spontaneous productionist, and bases his philosophy on the proposition that man originally was and now is a product of nature's laws, which are executed by the heavenly bodies, and that they created him in his present form, and not through the unknown laws of evolution, nor in the image of his "maker". Moreover, the great laws which created him must necessarily rule, and sustain him from his coming on till his going off of the stage of action.

The author also claims for the same laws the power to create species.

If they can create a single form of life, they can create many forms, since it is only necessary for them to create a nucleus in order to create any form of life. If they could create a single nucleus they could create many more. If more, their power is scarcely limited.

The creation of a nucleus is all the difficulty there is attending the creation of any and all forms of life; and since they can be created with ease and accuracy evolution is unnecessary.

Dissecting the human body, and separating it into its primary parts, as they were put together by the zoadical forces, may be regarded by some as hazardous and uncertain work. But the reader can better judge the merits of the point in question after he has finished the book.

The attempt to disprove the immortality of man will doubtless meet with more opposition than