The aim of the present volume is to give a co-ordinated and coherent view of the "forest" rather than to describe in detail each particular "tree." The student may then, as his leisure permits, and his tastes impel, study for himself the histories of the separate trees, bushes, thickets, and so on, which, collectively, make up the gigantic forest of lives which populate the amazing world, or rather series of worlds, in which we have our being and evolve. The work is planned in three main sections. First, the field, in which evolution takes place, is described. This involves a study of the various globes, their successive periods of activity and obscuration, the chains, and schemes of evolution. It is the formside of our subject, a description of the places where life evolves. The second section deals with the various streams of life which are poured into the prepared field, and the method by which those streams steadily evolve and pass through the various stages or levels of attainment or growth. These processes are here dealt with in, broad outline only, giving the student a bird's-eye view of the whole stately march of events.
