The question of questions to mankind —the problem which underlies all others, and is more deeply interesting than any other —is the ascertainment of the place which man occupies in nature, and of his relation to the universe of things. Whence has our race come? what are the limits of our power over nature, and of nature's power over us? to what good are we tending? — these are the problems which present themselves anew and with undiminished interest to every man born into the world. Most of us, shrinking from the difficulties and dangers which beset the seeker after original answers to these riddles, are contented to ignore them altogether. or to smother the investigating spirit under the feather bed of respected and respectable tradition.
Huxley, "Man's Place in Nature."
I.
