22 ANTICIPA TION AND INTERPRETA TTON OF NA TURE. 



of later thought in Europe, the Hving world was 

 the last to come under this principle of natural 

 causation. The battle for it had to be first foueht 

 out in Cosmogony, then in Geology. So keen a 

 philosopher as Kant believed that he saw two prin- 

 ciples in Nature ; one of natural causes reigning 

 in lifeless matter, one of teleolosrical causes reisfn- 

 ing in living matter. This was because he could 

 not conceive of any natural principle which could 

 explain the beautiful adaptations and designs of 

 Nature. From Geology the spread of the truth of 

 natural causation reached the origin of the lower 

 forms offiife, and finally the origin of man. It is 

 therefore a striking case of parallelism that the 

 advance of our knowledge of development has 

 repeated the actual cosmic order of development. 

 Man first perceived Evolution in objects most 

 remote, gradually in objects nearer to him, finally 

 in himself. 



Advance of Zoology and Botany. 



The general state of knowledge of the different 

 forms of life, next to the suggestiveness of Philoso- 

 phy, was the most important factor in the environ- 

 ment of the Evolution idea, as food to the organism. 

 The comparatively elementary knowledge of Aris- 

 totle rendered his speculations upon Evolution, at 

 most, happy guesses at the truth. Embryology, 

 Paleontology, Comparative Anatomy, and Distribu- 

 tion, the four pillars of modern Evolution, arose in 



