MAN IN THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. A POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE RESULTS OF RECENT SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AS REGARDS THE ORIGIN, POSITION AND PROSPECTS OF THE HUMAN RACE. FROM THE GERMAN OF Friedrich Karl Christian) Ludwig DR. L. BÜCHNER, ༥ AUTHOR OF "FORCE AND MATTER", "PHYSIOLOGICAL PICTURES", ASHER & CO., 13, BEDFORD STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 1872. TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. In offering to a British Public this translation of Dr. Büchner's book on the "Position of Man in Nature", I must beg to inform my readers that I.am by no means inclined to accept all the results at which Dr. Büchner has arrived. Thus I do not at all go with him in the extreme materialistic views which he holds with regard to the nature of life, and there are many of his opinions, especially upon moral and social questions, from which I thoroughly dissent. My object in preparing this translation was simply to give English Readers an opportunity of learning the direction which thought is taking in a considerable section of the reading public in Germany. Among the popular scientific writers of that country Dr. Büchner decidedly stands in the first rank, and his opinions are therefore well worthy of consideration. In the present work his exposition of matters connected with the position of man in Nature will be found both interesting and instructive, even to those who are opposed to him in principle, nay perhaps especially to them, as showing to what results the principles maintained by the school of thinkers to which Dr. Büchner belongs, necessarily lead. W. S. Dallas, |