ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 97 
ated world, perfected in all its parts, including man, the most complex being 
and climax of creation. 
In a search after the origin of any race, we are first led to define a belief 
in the origin of man. I accept the hypothesis of universal evolution by a 
slow process of cosmic development, from matter which includes within itself 
the elements of all atmospheric, mineral, vegetable and animal existence, but 
latent until its energies are quickened by that progressive life-principle which 
ceaselessly radiates from the Great Intelligent Mind of the Universe, and is 
everywhere essential to awaken development. 
This hypothesis, clearly within the scope of human thought, is able to 
stand the test of human reason, and now seems tangibly demonstrated, espe- 
cially in the connected chain of fossils recently discovered and arranged by 
Professor Marsh, which visibly illustrate, by an incontrovertible record of 
natural history, the evolution of the egues or horse family, anchitherium, 
hipparion, etc. 
All material things appear connected together by gradational forms, from 
the superior mental culture of man, the highest animal, to the protozean or 
lowest speck of gelatinous matter in which life manifests itself to human per- 
ception, onward through untold ages of mineral existence and cosmic condi- 
tions, ever in exact keeping with its pace of progress. All things that develop 
have life. Earth has labored to fit itself for the abode of man, and its labors 
are progressing successfully. Man came by regular stages of gradation from 
the monad, and his mental development keeps pace with and is restrained by 
physical surroundings. Immutable natural laws, universally and eternally in 
force, do not admit of any sudden, special creation of man, nor do they indi- 
cate that all forms of animal life could have been created at the same time. 
What has once occurred will, under similar conditions, occur elsewhere. 
Man is the result of all inferior types, whose capabilities are within him- 
self, making him a compendium of all created things. Fossil remains, 
found in different formations, are plainly revealing the stages of progressive 
transformation, each successive one having all the attributes of its predeces- 
sor, with more added. Crustaceous animals are succeeded by fishes, running 
into the saurian, thence into birds, next marsupials, followed by the mam- 
malial, up to man. Animal development has unfolded, and is continually 
improving as the physical conditions of the globe are improved and refined, 
and higher conditions rendered possible. 
Mind is an attribute of matter, each being instrumental and necessary to 
develop the other. Goethe says: ‘‘ Mind cannot exist without matter, nor 
active matter without mind.” 
The man of cultivated mind has reached more than a mere physical being, 
having developed within himself a portion of that superior intelligence, the 
germ of which he inherits from the Mind of the Universe. The human 
mind is unmistakably progressive, and progression is an eternal principle. 
Hence, mind, the highest refinement of matter in man, is eternal. Our 
greatest revelation from the Infinite is in His works, where nature matures a 
supply for every want she creates. The power to conceive of immortality 
Proo, Cau. AcAD. Sor., Vol. VI.—7. 
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