10 



less perish, the useful live and improve, al- 

 though our conception of what is useful and 

 improving is often opposed to Nature's. 



All Geology indicates assured progress by 

 its presentation of higher and higher gen- 

 erations of exalting forms, each remarkably 

 suited to the peculiar age in which it ap- 

 peared at its best. Of all such forms, that 

 of Man would seem to be the masterpiece 

 of Nature on this globe, and we cannot fail to 

 be impressed by a conviction that whatev- 

 er Nature may have accomplished on oth- 

 er planets, all her energies upon this have 

 evidently been exerted, through the medi- 

 um of Education, to shape, to instruct and 

 to perfect, the Human Race. 



But our parallel of comparison of Man with 

 the Simians is effectually arrested by a three 

 fold, irremovable, barrier : the possession of 

 progressive, deductive and inventive Reason; 

 the acquirement of extensible and transmissi- 

 ble Speech ; and the innate knowledge of the 

 formation and use of Tools ; attributes resident 

 solely in the spermatozoa and ovum of the hu- 

 man species, and absolutely inseparable there- 

 from. So I am spared the unpleasantness of 

 announcing anything so distasteful, to you, as 



