ONWARD AND UPWARD. 239 



the vertebrate skeleton have been exhausted in the struc- 

 tural adaptations of man : psychologically, we dare not pre- 

 sume against the correlation of a nobler intellect with a 

 higher organisation. On the contrary, in these ascending 

 forms the divine idea of moral perfection, though uncon- 

 ceivably unattainable by created existences, may be nearly 

 and more nearly approached, and stage by stage the loftiest 

 and holiest aspirations of the present may become the real- 

 isations of the future. To speculations such as these, 

 though lying fairly in the way of geological inquiry, science 

 can do little more than merely indicate the line of reason- 

 ing ; and if they shall be thought to involve any question 

 as to man's religious beliefs and his hopes of a future life, 

 on this point also science is mute, and defers with humility 

 to the teachings of a higher philosophy. 



