Flora of AUcbigjn. Study at Michigan 25 



reverence for Nature, and a knowledge of [his] own innermost 

 self beyond all price." -^ His studies of plants were not his only 

 strong scientific interest. 



One afternoon Professor DeWolf announced that a course in 

 zoology would be offered in the school. So enthused was Erwin 

 Smith that, collecting his thoughts "upon the real value of this 

 much neglected but interesting and important study," he prepared 

 and read before the students a theme entitled "A Plea for Zo- 

 ology." Outlining a bit of the interdependence and interrelation- 

 ships of the "animal and vegetable kingdoms," he urged that 

 comparative mechanisms and life histories of natural forms should 

 be studied not only because of the many interesting facts already 

 known and yet to be correlated with future discoveries but also 

 to understand man's own interrelationships " to each other and 

 to the earth, to himself and to the Author of all." 



"The older and lower forms of life must be known," he in- 

 sisted, "before its highest manifestations can be clearly under- 

 stood." Recent disclosures now rendered it "imperative that we 

 accept Darwin's doctrine of the origin of species, or some similar 

 theory of Descent to account for a multitude of facts brought to 

 light since 1859." Science for Smith purposed through systematic 

 examination of nature's forms and the deducing of natural laws 

 to present an adequate conception of " the sublime, inspiring fact 

 that we and all forms of life, whether spoken into being by a 

 word, or slowly wrought into present forms through secondary 

 causes, are intimately related to one all wise God whose work 

 we are." 



He was not a believer in Louis Agassiz's " theory of special 

 creations [of forms] in pairs upon various parts of the earth, a 

 theory," Smith said,"' "no more, if indeed as much, in harmony 

 with the account in Genesis, than is the doctrine of development." 

 He believed that "the great foundation principle of natural and 

 sexual selection [had been] first clearly enunciated by Charles 

 Darwin [and would] remain intact." He hailed " the time when 

 Natural History shall be taught in all schools not cautiously as 

 an enemy of truth, but boldly as a foundation of all morality and 

 religion." A knowledge of " some branch of Natural History," 



^* Letter, Smith to Viola Holmes, August 23, 1877. 



"^ Undated memorandum, found among Dr. Smith's papers, and from which this 

 and the next quotation are taken. 



