124 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [June 



attributes of the Supreme Intelligent Will as opposed to 

 Polytheism, Pantheism and Atheism, and the fact of an orderly 

 and serial origin of things. But if he says that animals were 

 made " according to their kinds," has any modern naturalist a 

 right to hold that the kinds or species of Genesis are equivalent 

 to those of any school of zoologists in our day ? Further, all who 

 profess to be acquainted with this part of theology should know 

 that the word " create " is applied in Genesis only to the first 

 animals, and to man considered as an intelligent and moral agent. 

 The other animals and all plants are said to have been " made," 

 " formed," " brought forth," implying that the writer had before 

 his mind the idea of a primary and secondary kind of origin of 

 organized beings. I endeavoured many years ago, in a work well 

 known to members of this Society, and published before Darwin's 

 Origin of Species, to illustrate this old " theological idea." Since 

 naturalists will bring up such subjects, I may be excused for 

 reminding them that if they should come to believe, on zoological 

 and geological grounds, that some of the entities which we call 

 species have been produced by a method which may be properly 

 termed creation, and others by secondary processes, they may 

 possibly find themselves to be in perfect harmony with the oldest 

 and most authoritative theological ideas on the subject. 



The second great question as to Derivation is that which 

 relates to the succession of species in Geological time. Was this 

 broken or uninterrupted? Did new species die out and were old 

 ones created in their room, or were the new ones derived by some 

 secondary process from those which preceded them ? This 

 question can only be finally settled by inductive investigation, 

 and unfortunately our knowledge of extinct animals and plants is 

 still too imperfect to give us the necessary accumulation of facts. 

 We can only inquire as to a few cases a little better known to us 

 than others. One curious feature of the inquiry is that it seems 

 easier to show relationships between large groups of animals than 

 between particular species. The reasons of this will appear 

 farther on. Prof. Huxley, with his usual dexterity in presenting 

 these problems to the popular comprehension, has recently taken 

 advantage of this in tracing the links of connection between birds 

 and reptiles.* By a series of cleverly arranged transitions, he has 

 succeeded in constructing such a series as no doubt sufficed to 



♦ Royal lustitiitioii Lecture on Animals intermediate between Birds 

 and Reptiles. 



