animals, and kangaroos, opossums and others of the marsupial species, 

 but many ages after them. 



In direct contradiction of this fable in Genesis, we learn from science 

 that our solar system once existed in a condition of highly attenuated 

 nebulous vapour ; and that in the course of millions of years this huge 

 chaotic mass of matter, with its sum of force or energy, subject alike 

 to the laws of gravitation and transformation, gradually condensed, 

 and became moulded into cosmic order, forming in process of time a 

 number of rotating spherical nebular masses, in a state of intense heat, 

 owing to the shock of their recently united atoms. These spheres 

 gradually cooled by radiation, consequently contracting and becoming- 

 possessed of a more rapid rotary movement, throwing off from their 

 equatorial regions large rings of vapour, which in their turn also con- 

 densed, and, under the influence of the same two laws, formed separate 

 spheres for themselves. Thus gradually came into existence our sun, 

 planets and moons. 



In the course of time, as our earth cooled down, large volumes of 

 water were precipitated on the surface, causing an enormous wear and 

 tear of the now solid rock of the earth's crust, which eventually gave 

 rise to depositions of various kinds of earth grits, in layers, one above 

 the other ; which strata have been divided by geologists into periods, 

 according to various peculiarities observed in the course of their de- 

 position. In the earliest of these periods, owing to the gradual change 

 that took place in the relative proportions of the atmospheric gases, 

 and to the great decrease in temperature, a peculiar combination of th 

 molecular atoms of the earth's substance took place, which resulted in 

 the formation of an albuminous substance, called protoplasm, possess- 

 ing the power of absorption, assimilation, and reproduction by fission, 

 or, in other words, developing the property called life. Under the 

 influence of the laws of heredity and selection this primordial germ 

 of life gradually developed into higher and still higher organic forms 

 of existence, from Amoebae to Gastroeada, cr molluscs with mouths ; 

 next to Vermes, or worm life ; then to Vertebrata, or back-boned ani- 

 mals ; through fishes ; amphibians, living both in and out of water ; 

 reptiles, from which eventually erolved birds ; arid marsupials ; up to. 

 mammals, such as whales, quadrupeds, apes and men. The gradual 

 e/olution of these species occupied many millions of years before the 



