Ill 



LECTURES ON EVOLUTION 



[1876] 

 I 



THE THREE HYPOTHESES RESPECTING THE 

 HISTORY OF 'NATURE 



WE live in and form part of -a system of things of 

 immense diversity and perplexity, which we call 

 Nature ; and it is a matter of the deepest interest 

 to all of us that we should form just conceptions 

 of the constitution of that system and of its past 

 history. With relation to this universe, man is, 

 in extent, little more than a mathematical point ; 

 in duration but a fleeting shadow ; he is a mere 

 reed shaken in the winds of force. But as Pascal 

 long ago remarked, although a mere reed, he is a 

 thinking reed ; and in virtue of that wonderful 

 capacity of thought, he has the power of framing 

 for himself a symbolic conception of the universe, 



