396 THEORY OP PROGRESSION CHAP. xx. 



genera) in the upper portions of the same series ; and lastly, 

 in the recent appearance of Man on the surface of the earth.' 



6 This historical development,' continues the same author, 

 6 of the forms and functions of organic life during successive 

 epochs, seems to mark a gradual evolution of creative power, 

 manifested by a gradual ascent towards a higher type of being.' 

 4 But the elevation of the fauna of successive periods was not 

 made by transmutation, but by creative additions ; and it is 

 by watching these additions that we get some insight into 

 Nature's true historical progress, and learn that there was a 

 time when Cephalopoda were the highest types of animal life, 

 the primates of this world ; that Fishes next took the lead, 

 then Eeptiles; and that during the secondary period they were 

 anatomically raised far above any forms of the reptile class 

 now living in the world. Mammals were added next, until 

 Nature became what she now is, by the addition of Man.' * 



Although in the half century which has elapsed between the 

 time of Lamarck and the publication of the above summary, 

 new discoveries have caused geologists to assign a higher an 

 tiquity both to Man and the oldest fossil mammalia, fish, and 

 reptiles than formerly, yet the generalisation, as laid down 

 by the Woodwardian Professor, still holds good in all essential 

 particulars. 



The progressive theory was propounded in the following 

 terms by the late Hugh Miller in his ' Footprints of the 

 Creator.' 



( It is of itself an extraordinary fact without reference to 

 other considerations, that the order adopted by Cuvier in his 

 " Animal Kingdom," as that in which the four great classes of 

 vertebrate animals, when marshalled according to their rank 

 and standing, naturally range, should be also that in which 

 they occur in order of time. The brain, which bears an 



* Professor Sedgwick's Discourse Cambridge, Preface to 5th ed. pp. xliv. 

 on the Studies of the University of cliv. ecxvi. 1850. 



