24 MAMMALIAN DESCENT. [Lect. I. 



This speaker, whose power of mental degkitition was so great, was 

 one of our oAvn calling, and, therefore, had undergone a Ijiological 

 training ; surely we may hope that better days are in store for its, 

 when no educated man will be in danger of falling into such a deep 

 l)it of belief as this. 



But Man, the only reasoning being Ave know anything of, can be 

 as unreasonable in his unbelief as in his belief. 



In ]\Ir j\Iallock's charming little Lucretius,^ there are many things 

 a Darwinian longs to quote, but one verse, Avith the translator's 

 prefatory remarks, may be given : — 



" The chance to Avhich our Avorld owes itself, needed infinite atoms 

 for its production, infinite trials, and infinite failures, liefore the 

 present combination of things arose. 



" ' For blindly, blindly, and without design. 



Did these first atoms their first meetings try ; 

 No ordering thought was there, no will divine 



To guide them ; but through infinite times gone by, 

 Tossed and tormented they essayed to join. 



And clashed through the void space tempestuously. 

 Until at last that certain whirl began, 



"Wliich slowly formed the earth and heaven, and man.' " 



—Page 93. 

 The reader is also requested to look at the curious, abortive, 

 unreasonable DarAvinism of the chapter " On the Origin of Life and 

 Species." — Section i\'., pp. 45-50. 



Those Avho care for defunct theories of Creation may find one as 

 good as the rest, but more amusing, in The Birds of Aristophanes.'^ 

 I can only find space for the beginning of this j^art of the Drama : — 



" Before the creation of Ether and Light, 

 Chaos and Night together A\-ere plight, 

 In the dungeon of Erelius foully bedight, 

 Nor Ocean, or Air, or Substance Avas there. 

 Or solid, or rare, or figure, or form, 

 But horril)Ie Tartarus ruled in the storm." — Page 30. 



1 William Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgli and London. 1878. 

 - Sir John Hookliam Frere's Translation. Cambridge, 1883. 



