EDITOR'S TABLE. 



"3 



That the great advancing movement of 

 life has been a divergence, an opening 

 out, or an evolution, is incontestable, 

 and is admitted by the highest biologi- 

 cal authorities. It is proved by the 

 fact tbat, if we go back a million of 

 years or so, there is an obvious con- 

 vergence of types, or the different kinds 

 of animals will have to be represented 

 as nearer together in cbaracters, and, 

 as we recede still farther into the past, 

 tbe approximation becomes still closer. 

 Prof. Owen says be has "never omit- 

 ted a proper opportunity for impress- 

 ing tbe results of observations show- 

 ing tbe more generalized structures of 

 extinct, as compared with tbe more 

 specialized form of recent animals." 

 Prof. Agassiz takes a similar position, 

 insisting strongly that " The more 

 ancient animals resemble the embry- 

 onic forms of existing species." Mr. 

 Wallace says : " As we go back into 

 past time and meet with the fossil re- 

 mains of more and more ancient races 

 of extinct animals we find that many 

 of them actually are intermediate be- 

 tween distinct groups of existing ani- 

 mals." Prof. Cope remarks: "That 

 the existing state of the geological rec- 

 ord of organic types should be regarded 

 as any thing but a fragment is, from 

 our stand-point, quite preposterous. 

 And more, it may be assumed with 

 safety, that when completed, it will 

 furnish us with a series of regular suc- 

 cessions, with but slight and regular 

 interruptions, if any, from the species 

 which represented the simplest begin- 

 nings of life at the dawn of creation, to 

 those which have displayed complica- 

 tion and power in a later or in the 

 present period. For the labors of the 

 paleontologist are daily bringing to 

 light structures intermediate between 

 those never before so connected, thus 

 creating lines of succession where be- 

 fore were only interruptions." Is the 

 great conclusion of an unfolding method 

 in the order of life which is based upon 

 a vast body of biological facts, and 



VOL. II. 8 



supported by the powerful analogies of 

 an unfolding order in other parts of 

 nature, to be characterized as a high- 

 flown a priori speculation ? or is it a 

 result of strict inductive inquiry, which 

 replaces an a priori hypothesis of life 

 that prevailed for ages before science 

 had entered upon its study? 



Again, humanity is not now what 

 it was in ages long past. That man's 

 existence upon earth dates back to a 

 far profounder antiquity than has for- 

 merly been believed, is a clear induc- 

 tion from an extensive array of facts. 

 Be the time longer or shorter, an im- 

 mense series of changes has taken place 

 in the history of the race. A few 

 thousand years ago Europe was bar- 

 barous, and its inhabitants warred and 

 worked with implements of stone. 

 Society was rude, low, homogeneous, 

 and undeveloped. Its movement has 

 been a slow unfolding into diversity 

 and specialty. There has been an in- 

 crease of human capabilities, a rise in 

 intelligence, an advance of morals, a 

 growing capacity of social cooperation, 

 a multiplication of arts and industries, 

 augmented power over Nature, an 

 emergence of institutions, and in short 

 an evolution of civilization. This is a 

 broad induction, from the facts of his- 

 tory, from the facts of prehistoric 

 archaeology, and from the facts of an- 

 thropology, and it is fast taking the 

 place of the old a priori speculation 

 that the course of humanity has been a 

 degeneracy, and which was firmly be- 

 lieved until science reversed the method 

 of studying the subject. 



Sir Charles Lyell, it will hardly be 

 denied, is one of the most learned and 

 able of living geologists. His pains- 

 taking conscientiousness as an observer 

 and his judicial caution and calmness 

 as an inductive reasoner are beyond 

 question. For fifty years he has studied 

 the subject of life in connection with 

 the past changes of the globe, and has 

 embodied his conclusions in his various 

 geological works. In the earlier of 



