FACTS AIJOUT \VI;LI. KNiiWN ANIMALS. Kt'J 



nulls laniiliar to all, ami it I have succeeded in investing; 

 these with a new interest in your eyes, the elloi-t will not 

 have heen in vain. 1 Ik'^' to assure you. also, that there is 

 no reflection in the assumption that you knew little of .some 

 of tlie facts stated, because, in truth, several of them have 

 hut very recently heen learned by naturalists, and every 

 year's investii^ation adds something to the general store of 

 knowledp' in natural science. 



in elosinu, peruiil me to ofler a few thoughts that i^eem 

 naturally to How liom the matter of this lecture. We have 

 seen that in every one of the great Cuvierian Branches of 

 the animal kingdom — even in that winch contains man — 

 suri)rising develo})ment,i)rofound metamorphoses, are under- 

 gone during the life of the individual. From the maggot 

 to the fly ; from the tadpole to the frog, astounding changes 

 take place in form, structure, and adaptation to surround- 

 ings within a few days or months, and before our very eyes. 

 We have seen how mighty results may follow in time from 

 the slowly-accumulating yet scarcely perceptible labor of so 

 seemingly insignificant an object as the earth-worm. With 

 such facts before you can you doubt that changes like those 

 experienced by the individual in so short a time may have 

 been exi)erieneed by the race in unlimhed time. Can you 

 longer wonder when nature thrusts upon him at every turn 

 such and a thousand other evidences of development that 

 the evolutionist believes in it as a principle — a law — the 

 only mode of creation I It permits us 



" To paint the past, yet in tlic past portray 

 Such shapes as seem <lim prophets of to-day." 



and had not pala?ontology recently given us absolute proof 

 of its truth, evolution, even as a mere conception of crea- 

 tion, infinitely transcends all former conceptions. The tree 

 grows from the root upward, not from the leaf and flower 

 downward. Man has grf>wn u[) from a past savagery, not 

 from i)erfection downward. \\'ere I to a.ssure you that you 

 were all created full-bearded and full-dressed by some 

 miraculous fiat, instead of having been born of ])arcnts and 



