The index to this edition is the work of Mr. Strickland Gibson of Oxford. Several correspondents have asked for a pronouncing index and accordingly this has been provided.
The writer owes a word of thanks to that living index of printed books, Mr. J. F. Cox of the London Library. He would also like to acknowledge here the help he has received from Mrs. Wells. Without her labour in typing and re-typing the drafts of the various chapters as they have been revised and amended, in checking references, finding suitable quotations, hunting up illustrations, and keeping in order the whole mass of material for this history, and without her constant help and watchful criticism, its completion would have been impossible.
SCHEME OF CONTENTS
BOOK I
THE MAKING OF OUR WORLD
PAGE CHAPTER I. THE EARTH IN SPACE AND TIME 3
CHAPTER II. THE RECORD OF THE ROCKS
§ 1. The first living things 7
§ 2. How old is the world? 13
CHAPTER III. NATURAL SELECTION AND THE CHANGES OF SPECIES 16
CHAPTER IV. THE INVASION OF THE DRY LAND BY LIFE
§ 1. Life and water 23
§ 2. The earliest animals 25
CHAPTER V. CHANGES IN THE WORLD’S CLIMATE
§ 1. Why life must change continually 29
§ 2. The sun a steadfast star 34
§ 3. Changes from within the earth 35
§ 4. Life may control change 36