200 QUARTERLY JOURNAL. 



evidence save that of analogy. Life begins at a point ; radiates from 

 that point ; gathers strength and power in its progress, till it reaches 

 its acme ; then begins to faulter, till finally it turns backward, runs 

 a retrograde course, and terminates, as it began, in a point. Species 

 commence their course in a single pair of individuals : they multiply 

 and increase, until the race attains its maximum of development in 

 numbers and physical perfection ; when a stationary period inter- 

 venes, and is succeeded by one of dcf^line ; the life-power of the 

 species slowly retires, exhausted of its force by its diffusion through 

 the great flood of beings which it has served to animate, till finally 

 becoming too dilute and feeble to sustain the vital energy, it Kngers 

 for a moment like the flickering and dim light of an expiring taper, 

 and then disappears forever. Nations too arise from a few indivi- 

 duals, or from a feeble colony, a score of men perhaps : they press 

 onward and become a strong people ; they extend their power on 

 all sides, and every successive step serves but to increase the na- 

 tional strength and prosperity, until that strength and prosperity 

 reach their highest limit ; when, as it were in the fulfilment of a law 

 of nature, an inevitable decline commences ; the centre of the bodj 

 politic gradually loses its power over the circumferential members ; 

 its efforts to supply vitality to the extremes exhaust itself, and i" 

 falls sooner or later a prey to its own weakness. 



We see this principle illustrated, as we think, in the lost races 

 themselves. How often is the geologist able to point to the ver) 

 origin of a race ; not perhaps to the first progenitor, but to the timf 

 when, like a feeble colony, it began its career in a score of indivi- 

 duals only. From such small beginnings, for instance, arose the 

 numerous species which have successively tenanted the ancieni 

 waters of our planet : they grew and increased in numbers, till thcji 

 filled the depths of the sea, and spread themselves on every shore : 

 but though possessing this wide domain, they were not destined tc 

 hold it forever : in numbers, and in perfection of specific develop- 

 ment, they reached the limit assigned by nature, and thence begar 

 in their turn a downward course, dwindled away to a feeble anc 

 imperfect condition, decreased in numbers, and finally perished- 

 never to appear again on this sphere of existence. Recent discoveries 

 corroborate the soundness of these views. We observe, perhaps foi 

 the first time, a single mollusk at the base of the New- York system 

 of rocks. As the deposits of this system are piled one upon another,ir 



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