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early geological periods produced the condition of infe- 

 riority, while an increased rapidity of growth in later 

 days has resulted in an attainment of superiority. It is 

 not to be supposed that in " acceleration " the period 

 of growth is shortened : on the contrary, it continues 

 the same. Of two beings whose characters are assumed 

 at the same rate of succession, that with the quickest or 

 shortest growth is necessarily inferior. " Acceleration " 

 means a gradual increase of the rate of assumption of 

 successive characters in the same period of time. A 

 fixed rate of assumption of characters, with gradual in- 

 crease in the length of the period of growth, would 

 produce the same result viz., a longer developmental 

 scale and the attainment of an advanced position. The 

 first is in part the relation of sexes of a species ; the 

 last of genera, and of other types of creation. If from 

 an observed relation of many facts we derive a law, we 

 are permitted, when we see in another class of facts 

 similar relations, to suspect that a similar law has ope- 

 rated, differing only in its objects. We find a marked 

 resemblance between the facts of structural progress 

 in matter and the phenomena of intellectual and spir- 

 itual progress. 



If the facts entering into the categories enumerated 

 in the preceding section bear us out, we conclude that 

 in the beginning of human history the progress of the 

 individual man was very slow, and that but little was 

 attained to ; that through the profitable direction of hu- 

 man energy, means were discovered from time to time 

 by which the process of individual development in all 

 metaphysical qualities has been accelerated ; and that 

 up to the present time the consequent advance of the 

 whole race has been at an increasing rate of progress, 



