ONWARD AND UPWARD. 237 



facts of geology, a recurrence of infinitesimally divergent 

 phenomena that assume the stamp and character of an ever 

 onward progress 1 From the restricted nature of individual 

 life we are unconsciously led to associate with everything 

 around us the idea of a beginning, a progress, and an end. 

 An endless progression, like an eternity of unchangeable 

 sameness, is a notion we cannot realise ; and we are apt to 

 regard the successive phases of geological history as mere 

 stages in a progression which has had its beginning in the 

 Past, and must come to an end in the Future. The be- 

 ginning and end of this progression, however widely sepa- 

 rated, may after all only mark the limits of a single stage in 

 some vaster scheme of progress ; and what seems to termi- 

 nate the present may only be the beginning of another and 

 higher phase of terrestrial vitality. 



[Onward and Upward.] 



Ignorant of the teachings of geology and the great pro- 

 gression it unfolds, mankind have hitherto regarded the 

 scheme of life as culminating and terminating with their 

 own race. All or nearly all the hopes that give colouring 

 to their thoughts and direction to their actions proceed 

 from this belief, though in strictest science the belief itself 

 rests on no logical foundation. It is true, one of our high- 

 est biological authorities (Professor Agassiz) "thinks it can 

 be shown by anatomical evidence, that man is not only the 

 last and highest among the living beings of the present 

 period, but that he is the last term of a series, beyond 

 which there is no material progress possible in accordance 

 with the plan upon which the whole animal kingdom is 

 constructed ; and that the only improvement we can look 

 for upon earth, for the future, must consist in the develop- 



