ON COAL. 167 



ian theorists, and more particularly against the author of the "Ves- 

 tiges of Creation," he has attempted to show that, in certain families, 

 at least, the law has heen that of degradation, instead of progression. 

 He has labored to prove that the earliest fishes have been the highest, 

 instead of the lowest fishes, and that the earliest reptiles have been 

 higher in the scale than the present reptiles. This idea has been 

 seized upon by some in this country, and it has been attempted, by 

 connecting it with the fall and degradation of man, to show that the 

 universallaw of history, both geological and human, is degradation. 

 The disciples of this melancholy philosophy believe that divine power 

 successively introduced higher and higher classes, but each class, left 

 to its own laws, continued to degrade itself. The Deity repeatedly 

 attempted progression, by the miraculous introduction of successively 

 higher classes, but some malign influence as constantly iaterposed 

 and, to some extent, frustrated these attempts. 



Now, it is evident that these theorizers have never thoroughly 

 grasped the fundamental idea of development. They mistake speciali- 

 zation for degradation. Upon this theory all our boasted modern 

 civilization, so far as it is the result of division of labor, specialization 

 of social functions, and mutual dependence of parts, is degradation. 



Upon what ground are the Ganoids and Flacoids considered the 

 highest fishes? Only on the ground that they combine with their 

 fish characters others which ally them with the higher classes, par- 

 ticularly with reptiles. In other words, they fall into the very error 

 of the Laraarckians themselves, viz : that of supposing that the ani- 

 mal kingdom is to be represented by a linear series, and that, there- 

 fore, the highest fishes approach the lowest reptiles, and the highest 

 reptiles the next higher class, &c. But the very reverse of this is the 

 fact. The animal kingdom should be represented by an infinitely 

 branching tree, rather than by an ascending right line ; tor we find, 

 in every case, classes approach each other in the lowest members of 

 each, and diverge as they ascend. Thus, it is the lowest, and not the 

 highest plants, which approach the animal kingdom. As we ascend, 

 they become more and more widely separated, until, in the highest 

 representatives of each, the separation reaches its highest point. So 

 also each branch of these kingdoms diverges from its fellow branches. 

 It is, therefore, in its lowest, not its highest, members that we should 

 naturally expect, according to the law of difierentiation, the class of 

 fishes to approach the class of reptiles. In some sense, indeed, Fla- 

 coids and Ganoids may be considered higher than typical fishes. 

 Their brain and nervous system is more highly organized, their re- 

 production is more complex, their young are better cared for. But 

 it will be recollected that they are both connecting and embryonic 

 types. Now, it is their connecting characters which seem to elevate 

 them, for their true fish characters are all embryonic. As vertebrates 

 they may possibly be considered higher than other fishes, but as 

 fishes they must be considered low. Anatomists may place them 

 high but morphologists will always place them low. If the several 

 classes of the animal kingdom, diverging in various directions, be, 

 as it were, projected u|)on a vertical plane, the Flacoids and Ganoids 

 may possibly occupy a higher position than the typical fishes ; but_, 



