204 MAMMALIAN DE80EXT. [Lkct. IX. 



(•onceives of the glory that i.s to be revealed in and 

 to him. 



What must seem to him to l)e the very bitterness of 

 death is, in reality, the passage from tlie shadow of 

 death into a newness of life, as delightful as it must 

 have l)een unexjDected. 



A w^ord to the wise ! The great apostle of meta- 

 morphosis, our beloved Darwin, never doubted, and 

 never dreamed of doubting, the future possibilities of 

 our mysterious being, when he showed us that, in our 

 initiation into life, we were of the earth, earthy, and 

 like unto the beasts that perish. " Sit anima mea cum 

 j)liilosophis !" May my soul always walk with his soul, 

 and with the souls of such calm, gentle, noble, and 

 expectant natures as his ! 



Anyhow, in the very delirium of life's fever we have 

 had visions of marvellous beauty ; beauty developed 

 upon this little, dark terrestrial ball. The possililities 

 of the universe are practically infinite, and we can 

 afford to wait until the time of our " ecdysis " comes. 



But some one will say, should not all this speculation 

 and controversy aljout the evolution of organic types — 

 with Man at the top — be avoided, as likely to fill us 

 with trouljled dreams ? 



We cannot avoid it ; it is in the air. Once lift up 

 Man aljove the 'J'iger and the A^^e, and he will begin to 

 sj^eculate. I would not exchange Darwin's Origia of 

 Species for all tliat the " sdioolmen" ever wrote; and 



