CHAPTER XIII. 



The Evolution of Animals. 



As with minerals and vegetals, we shall now endea- 

 vour to prove that the evolution of animals is equally 

 spontaneous, haphazard and automatic ; that their 

 energy is equally magnetic and electric, their origin 

 an accident, their life a peradventure, and their pur- 

 pose a mockery. Each and all, but especially men, 

 are automatic puppets evolved by natural laws and 

 manipulated by natural agencies ; so that they strut 

 about for a brief space on a provincial stage, are 

 cursed with a more or less painful death, and then 

 disappear for other puppets to arise in turn inces- 

 santly and endlessly. 



Our special purpose in this chapter shall be to 

 show that animals like plants are living magnets, but 

 through an ingenious mechanical device, already re- 

 ferred to, they are rendered complete and self-con- 

 tained organisms, so that they enjoy perfect freedom 

 of action, and are not tethered like the plants to the 

 soil, or confined to a circumscribed area of existence. 



