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these orders would require to be subdivided a good many times, always 

 selecting those which have most things in common, and grouping them 

 by themselves. By narrowing down in this way it is comparatively 

 easy to find out the name of any bird from the descriptions usually 

 given in works on ornithologv. In like manner in all the other divisions 

 into which animal life is arranged, classification is carried out. The 

 necessity for classifying the different sorts of animals into such groups 

 as I have tried to point out must be so apparent to all that there need 

 be nothing further said on the subject. 



The study of the various forms of animal life with all their never 

 ending peculiarities, their relations to each other — their habits and in- 

 stincts, &c, must always be of great interest to man, but that branch of 

 scientific research, which takes for its subject the origin of life, together 

 with the origin of species, opens up fields of speculation of much greater 

 interest, and which bid fair to revolutionize our whole conception of the 

 manner in which man as well as all other organisms came to be as we 

 now find them. 



It is my purpose to try and point out as briefly and as clearly as I 

 can some of the views held by leading scientists of the present day on 

 the subject just named. Up to a very recent period the belief was all 

 but universal that all living creatures came from the hands of their 

 creator perfectly formed and perfectly fitted to the surrounding world 

 in which they had their habitation, that a power outside and beyond 

 what we call nature brought life into existence from nothing, and that 

 it was so continued in the same unchanged and unchangable condition 

 throughout all the time of its existence. It was claimed that God had 

 infallibly revealed to man the order and plan of creation, and conse- 

 quently there was no room for discussing or inquiring into the subject 

 at all. The few people who had the timerity to doubt the finality of 

 the biblical conclusions, as then understood, suffered no little in the way 

 social and physical persecution. 



The investigation of natui'e, principally during the past half cen- 

 tury, has not only shaken the belief in the theological explanation of the 

 world and of life, but has given rise to new theories concerning the be- 

 ginning of life and the causes accounting for all its varied forms. 



As the structure and make up of the earth came to be investigated 



