THE LAPSE OF TIME. 95 



of one generation from those of another ; and even 

 in the most highly organized creatures the points of 

 resemblance generally far outweigh the points of dif- 

 ference between the parents and their children. In 

 short, under ordinary circumstances, not one genera- 

 tion only, but a hundred, may pass away without 

 registering any perceptible alteration in the character 

 of a species. A hundred generations of mankind would 

 require a period of about three thousand years. A 

 hundred generations of less important creatures might 

 not perhaps require even as large a number of hours. 

 But between the two extremes the necessary periods 

 would bear a kind of ratio to the perfection of the 

 organism. Variations might now and then follow one 

 another in quick succession, and then a pause come 

 of a thousand generations or so before any further 

 changes in the character of a species. 



Such are the conditions under which Mr. Darwin 

 and his followers believe it possible for the whole se- 

 quence of changes to have been effected, which have 

 ended in peopling the whole earth with a countless 

 variety of the most diverse forms of life. Many per- 

 sons are horrified at the notion of linking together a 

 man and a monkey even by the most distant ties of 

 consanguinity ; what will they say to a genealogy 

 which begins with an almost invisible speck and ends 

 with a Patagonian giant a genealogy which asserts 

 that, through the slow process of minute changes oc- 

 curring for the most part at rare intervals, our fair 

 humanity has been developed or evolved out of creatures 



