I have only now to frankly admit that during the last few years my views as regards the theories of ultimate causation and the future state have undergone some modification; that consequently I now regard the line of argument adopted in support of the theory of a future state of consciousness on pages 5 & 6 of my above named work as a false one and the conclusions arrived at as consequently false also; and that respecting the existence of a ruling power in the universe, I neither affirm nor deny such a condition, being contented with the knowledge that I neither know nor apparently can ever know anything at all about the matter, and recognizing, with Moleschott, the incontrovertible truth that “there is nothing in our intellect which has not entered by the gate of the senses.” H. J. H. Purton Lodge, Sheffield. January 1887. CONTENTS. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. EXPLANATORY NOTES. ERRATA. MAN—WHENCE AND WHITHER?—Nebular Hypothesis—Formation of Earth’s crust—Fossil remains in stratified rocks—Pedigree of Man—Pleistocene and Neolithic Ages—Spontaneous evolution of life—Theories of existence and ultimate causation—Man’s future state. MAN’S ANTIQUITY.—Cave explorations—British and continental discoveries—Glacial periods—Tertiary upheaval and submergence in Europe—Tertiary fauna and flora—Pleistocene ice age—Palæolithic age—Tropical origin of Man—Neolithic age—Shell-mounds and remains of lake-dwellings—Bronze and Iron ages—Aryan invasion of Europe—Historic era. EVOLUTION OF MIND.—Universal life or motion—Protoplasmic life—Cell life—Origin of organs of sense—Embryonic development—Dawn of infantile intellect—Intellectual and emotional evolution in the individual—Corresponding development in the race—Animals reflective and emotional—Language in man and animals. THE SPECIAL SENSES.—Evolution of. EVOLUTION OF THE GOD IDEA.—Dawn of intellect—Earliest conception of Deity—Sun worship—First human tribes—Aryan mythology—Vedic system—Brahmanism—Hindu virgin and child-saviour—Boodhism—Western Aryan mythology—Zeus, Apollo, Prometheus, Hercules, Dionysos, & Yao—Central Aryan mythology—Mazdeism—Mithra—Egyptian mythology—Osiris, Isis & Horus—Amen-Ra, Mises—Chinese mythology—Semitic mythology—Akkadian and Chaldean myths—Adonis, El, Yahouh—Jewish origin—Bible gods—Confucianism—Mohammedanism—Christianism. ZODIACAL MYTHOLOGY.—Ancient and modern zodiacs—Precession of equinoxes—Deification of zodiacal signs and other celestial bodies—Savior-sun-god dramas—Sacred numbers & symbols—Ancient and modern phallic worship—Dionysia, Adonia & Agapæ.