10 PKOGEESS : ITS LAW AND CAUSE. 



be traced out in what may be called the general life of tJie 

 glohe^ as in the individual life of every one of the forms of 

 organized being which now people it." Or we might quote, 

 as decisive, the judgment of Professor Owen, who holds 

 that the earlier examples of each group of creatures sever- 

 ally departed less widely from archetypal generality than 

 the later ones — were severally less unlike the fundamental 

 form common to the group as a whole ; that is to say — 

 constituted a less heterogeneous group of creatures ; and 

 who further upholds the doctrine of a biological progres- 

 sion. But in deference to an authority for whom we have 

 the highest respect, who considers that the evidence at 

 present obtained does not justify a verdict either waj^, we 

 are content to leave the question open. 



Whether an advance from the homosreneous to the 



o 



heterogeneous is or is not displayed in the biological his- 

 tory of the globe, it is clearly enough displayed in the 

 progress of the latest and most heterogeneous creature — 

 Man. It is alike true that, during the jDcriod in which the 

 Earth has been peopled, the human organism has grown 

 more heterogeneous among the civilized divisions of the 

 species ; and that the species, as a whole, has been grow- 

 ing more heterogeneous in virtue of the multiplication of 

 races and the differentiation of these races from each 

 other. 



In proof of the first of these positions, we may cite 

 the fact that, in the relative development of the limbs, the 

 civilized man departs more widely from the general type 

 of the placental mammalia than do the lower human races. 

 While often possessing well-developed body and arms, the 

 Papuan has extremely small legs : thus reminding us of 

 the quadrumana, in which there is no great contrast in 

 size between the hind and fore limbs. But in the Eu- 

 ropean, the greater length and massiveness of the legs has 

 become very marked — the fore and hind limbs are rela- 



