THE CHAIN OF SPECIES. 579 



growth ; and we see long lateral branches, likewise, similarly tipped 

 with leaf, bud, and bloom ; and we do not doubt their common origin, 

 because there stands the common connecting trunk. Yet neither of 

 these had any part in the production of the others ; nor remains there 

 a single one of the individual buds and tender leaves which, in the 

 years gone by, really did take part in the development, the consumma- 

 tion whereof we now behold. 



Nor, in regarding man, whom we fondly believe the crowning 

 glory of creation, should we expect to see the precise yearly growths 

 which have finally lifted him to this elevation. The steps of the evo- 

 lution may still be traced, but not a single individual of the lineal an- 

 cestry remains. When, therefore, we speak of the chain of species — 

 of the line of man's descent — upon a priori grounds, we do not expect 

 to find, extant in life, the very links of the chain. The loss of them 

 is another proof of evolution. It is thus, according to the plan pro- 

 posed, we w^ould expect to find it exemplified. It is a rational concep- 

 tion of creation we are attempting to reach, and no other rational 

 hypothesis has ever been proposed. 



We do not find, then, the very species through which the ascent to 

 man has been accomplished, and do not seek to find them ; but, if this 

 plan of derivation is well founded, as it is clearly rational, we must con- 

 clude that the various races of man, now upon the earth, sprang from 

 some common stock, of the order of primates ; which, in turn, must 

 have been derived from a lower simian form ; and this, again, must 

 have come of a trunk leading back to aplacental mammals ; and these 

 lead on to amphibious reptiles; these to fishes; these to cephalopod 

 moUusks; these to bivalve mollusks; these to cirrhiped crustaceae; 

 which last, in foetal life, possess all the characteristics of the general 

 articulate or annulose type ; annul osa being derived directly from 

 primordial coelenterata, whence probably issued, also, annuloids and 

 molluscoids. If molluscoidea be the offspring of ccelenterata, then the 

 part played in evolution by the molluscoid type was not to furnish a 

 stage of transition, but to illustrate the power of a segment. In any 

 case, we end with the coelenterate type, whether fixed, as in actinia, 

 or occasional only, as in rhizopods. This last, being the first animal 

 form, causes us to remember that here branches off another great 

 kingdom, of which the life is always exothentic ; and which, therefore, 

 has no direct part in this chain, except that its first forms furnish the 

 common stock whence has arisen all organic life. 



This wonderfully intimate relationship of the innumerable forms 

 of living creatures, properly considered, is calculated to elevate our 

 conception of the creation, and of man himself; while, to the glory 

 of the Creator, it is held out to us as another " bow of promise " — 

 another assurance of the certainty of the universal reign of law. Nor 

 must it be forgotten that it does not exclude, but, contrariwise, encour- 

 ages, moral reflections. While it tells man of his dignity, it tells him 



