COMPARISON OF DANA AND AGASSIZ 



successive culmination of higher and higher dominant 

 classes. This was embodied in his idea of successive 

 reigns. (3) The law vl progress of the whole, though not 

 necessarily of all the parts. These three laws of succes- 

 sion of organic forms are literally the formal laws of 

 phylogeny and therefore of evolution. It only remained 

 to reduce these formal laws of succession to a natural 

 process. This Darwin did. Upon no other foundation 

 could a solid structure have been raised. Without 

 Agassiz, Darwin could not have been. 



Now, Dana cordially adopted Agassiz's view of the 

 development of the organic kingdom. By its grandeur 

 and comprehensiveness it both captivated his mind and 

 satisfied his religious nature, but in his own peculiar field, 

 namely, that of development of earth-features, he always 

 spoke only of natural processes and natural causes. 

 Agassiz's strong and dominating nature never yielded to 

 the new doctrine. Even if he had lived to Dana's age, 

 it is probable he would never have adopted the modern 

 acceptation of evolution. Dana's more gentle and plastic 

 nature could not thus set in unchangeable form. His 

 open receptiveness of mind could not close itself to truth, 

 even though it came from unexpected quarters and in 

 unwelcome guise. He finally came to see that the 

 grandeur of Agassiz's view was not lessened by admitting 

 a natural process. In his latest utterances he cordially 

 accepted evolution in its modern sense and as applied to 

 the organic kingdom as not only the truest, but also the 

 noblest view of the process of development. But while 

 he held firmly and expressed clearly this idea of evolution 

 of the whole earth through all time, yet he recognized 

 the impossibility, in the present state of geological know- 

 ledge, of carrying it out in detail in every part of the 

 earth. He therefore conceived the idea of taking one 

 best-known and simplest continent as a type. He re- 

 garded the North American as such a type-continent and 



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