92 PENIKESE. 



link between back-bone and non-back-bone life,) giv- 

 ing characteristics similar to those of the higher 

 groups of selachians and even some of the higher 

 orders of animals themselves, though, in general de- 

 velopment, far inferior to the lampreys even, which 

 are higher in so many respects. Now this is only one 

 instance of the distinctive character of individuals. The 

 evolutionists would probably say, that this simply 

 formed a branch which refused to unite; but, to my 

 mind, that hardly accounts for the fact: It hardly 

 seems possible that there should be found so many 

 branches, as there really are, refusing to unite." 



Here, Professor Putnam's remarks were cut short 

 by some call in another direction, and he left the island 

 before completing the talk which he had promised us, 

 and had, so far, so ably and so significantly begun. 



It is, without any doubt, such facts as these: spe- 

 cies of a known and definitely lower group possessing 

 so many of the characteristics of the higher animals, 

 that cause the working naturalists to rebel against the 

 ardor of his more sanguine brother scientist, who first 

 pronounces his theory, and then endeavors to fit to it 

 or explain away from it the facts that come within his 

 reach. Without doubt Agassiz saw far enough into 

 Nature's realities to avoid theories and useless contro- 

 versies. He endeavored to let his investigations re- 

 fute theories based upon false premises. 



Professor Morse, when he said that anti-evolution- 

 ists were, "with a few exceptions, merely species de- 

 scribers," forgot the tremendous concession thereby 

 made to those same "non-evolutionists," since one of 

 the evolutionist's grand theorems is, that "no one has 

 as yet even defined what a species is." The non-evo- 

 lutionists do not seek to make species, genus, family, 

 orders, branch, and such like divisions of the animal 

 kingdom synonymous with the term individual, as do 

 the evolutionists, though they, the former, do believe 

 in the universal oneness if we may so call it of 

 matter, as well as in its indestructibility. 



As, at length, I draw near to the conclusion of my 



