Many imperfections, as I anticipated, have been discovered in my “Popular Faith Unveiled,” some of importance and others of little consequence; and many suggestions have been offered in all kindness by those who have done me the honour of reading my work, for consideration in case I should issue another edition. The strongest of all the arguments urged in favour of the real necessity for a second and revised edition is that that part of the subject treated upon which related more particularly to the true origin of man was not dealt with in a sufficiently exhaustive manner in the last work. This, of course, is a true charge: but it should be borne in mind that the main object of the book was to expose the real nature of the popular superstition, and not to trace out the pedigree of man; and, moreover, to have entered fully into such subjects as the evolution of mind and matter would have considerably augmented the bulk of the work, and consequently have necessitated such an increase in the price as to have made it prohibitory to a large number of thinkers, who have not too much spare cash to throw away. I therefore determined not to re-issue the work in an amplified form, but to supplement it with a number of published lectures (delivered here and in various other large towns) and articles, which should be ultimately brought out as an illustrated volume.

These lectures, etc., some of which are re-prints from journals and some of which I have myself printed in my leisure moments, I now offer to the public in book form, together with a number of figures, maps, etc., illustrative of the subjects treated upon. “Man—Whence and Whither” and “Evolution of the God-idea” are re-printed from The Agnostic; “Man’s Antiquity,” “Evolution of Mind,” “Zodiacal Mythology,” “Intellectual Progress in Europe” and “The Annals of Tacitus” from the Secular Review; and “The Special Senses” and “The Bible” from The Agnostic Annual: the remainder of the text, as before stated, has been printed by myself.

I must acknowledge with gratitude my indebtedness to Mr. John Bennett, of Prince’s Buildings, Dronfield, who has been kind enough to assist me by drawing the zodiacal signs, the Bacchanalian insignia, the oriental and Egyptian zodiacs, Amen-Ra, Mafuca, Aidanill and the negro head, the two hands, the Fuegans, the Australian (2), African and European skulls, and BoÖtes, Virgo, Cetus, Aquarius and Sagittarius; and also to Mr. Wm. Gill Hall, of 66 Cecil Road, Sheffield, who has kindly drawn for me the single chimpanzee, the orang, the lemur, the face of the proboscis monkey, the moor monkey, the hairy couple from Burmah, the genealogy of man, the earth’s section, and the ascent of mind. The remainder of the illustrations, with the exception of the two zincographs of the gorillas and chimpanzees (the frontispiece), have been drawn by myself; and I must trust to the generosity of my readers to overlook the amateur style of my productions, which, it is hoped, will be found sufficiently well done to serve the purpose for which they are intended. However amateur the illustrations may be in appearance, this I can truthfully say, that every sketch in the book is a faithful reproduction of the original. Some of the illustrations, however, have been derived from such gross originals that it has not been considered advisable, for many reasons, to reproduce the figures in their entirety; but wherever part of a figure has been modified by the substitution of a symbolical or other device the fact has been notified to the reader at the foot of the illustration.

In the course of the following lectures the opportunity has been seized to rectify some of the mistakes inadvertently committed in my “Popular Faith Unveiled;” but there are two errors in printing that have not yet been set right, and to which, therefore, I should now like to call attention. The first occurs on page 102, lines 9 & 10 from the bottom, where ????—A.L.E.I. should have been written ????—A.L.Y (or.I.)E. (El Yah), or ????—A.L.OU.E. (Eloh), etc. The next occurs on page 109, line 6 from bottom, where millions should read thousands.

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.