LIFE OF JAMES DWIGHT DANA 



geological work, I repeat, was the evolution of the earth 

 as a whole. 



It is necessary to stop a moment here to qualify and 

 explain. It is true that he made a difference between the 

 evolution of the earth and that of the organic kingdom. 

 It is true that while the development of the earth was 

 regarded by him as a natural process and determined by 

 natural causes, and therefore a true evolution, at first and 

 for a long time he regarded the progress of the organic 

 kingdom as belonging to a different category, as not an 

 evolution in the true sense of the word that is, not as a 

 wholly natural process determined by natural forces re- 

 siding in the thing evolving. Like Agassiz, he preferred 

 to liken the development of the organic kingdom to the 

 building of a temple under the intelligent plans of an 

 architect outside of the work and acting, as it were, on 

 foreign material, rather than to an egg evolving under 

 its own resident forces. He could not at first see that 

 natural processes are really divine processes, and natural 

 forces are forms of the divine energy resident in nature ; 

 yet it is plain to see now that his mind was so saturated 

 with the idea of evolution and his mode of thought so 

 determined by evolution methods that he was bound by 

 philosophic consistency to reach eventually a true evolu- 

 tion point of view in the case of the organic kingdom as 

 well as in that of the earth. 



Let me, however, in passing do justice to Agassiz, 

 for in doing so I do justice also to Dana for embracing 

 his views. 



There can be no doubt that Agassiz prepared the way 

 for the theory of evolution of the organic kingdom, and 

 even laid its whole foundation, in the three great laws of 

 succession of organic forms on the earth. These are : (i) 

 The law of differentiation of specialized from generalized 

 forms. These early generalized forms he called synthetic 

 types, combining types, prophetic types. (2) The law of 



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