2 THE DAWN OF LIFE. 



commence witli the humblest types known to us^ and 

 should march on in successive bands of gradually 

 increasing dignity and power, till man himself brings 

 up the rear. 



Do we know the first animal ? Can we name it^ 

 explain its structure, and state its relations to its. suc- 

 cessors ? Can we do this by inference from the suc- 

 ceeding types of being ; and if so, do our anticipations 

 agree with any actual reality disinterred from the 

 earth^s crust ? If we could do this, either by inference 

 or actual discovery, how strange it would be to know 

 that we had before us even the remains of the first 

 creature that could feel or will, and could place itself 

 in vital relation with the great powers of inanimate 

 nature. If we believe in a Creator, we shall feel it a 

 solemn thing to have access to the first creature into 

 which He breathed the breath of life. If we hold 

 that all things have been evolved from collision of 

 dead forces, then the first molecules of matter which 

 took upon themselves the responsibility of living, and, 

 aiming at the enjoyment of happiness, subjected them- 

 selves to the dread alternatives of pain and mortality, 

 must surely evoke from us that filial reverence which 

 we owe to the authors of our own being, if they do 

 not involuntarily draw forth even a superstitious 

 adoration. The veneration of the old Egyptian for 

 his sacred animals would be a comparatively reason- 

 able idolatry, if we could imagine any of these animals 

 to have been the first that emerged from the domain 

 of dead matter, and the first link in a reproductive 



