158 PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



social evils lies also in positive and scientific education. 

 It is hardly necessary to point out that our better know- 

 ledge of man's nature will modify our present principles 

 of government and legislation, for obviously legislation and 

 government should be in harmony with the nature and 

 requirements of each race. INDIVIDUALISM, in contra- 

 distinction of SOCIALISM, is the principle of progress which 

 Mr. Herbert Spencer strongly endorses, the neglect of which 

 inevitably dooms society to cruel disappointments. 



Such is the record of the organic group in its briefest 

 form. We see how the results of the previous period fade 

 into insignificance; how far they have been left behind by 

 the achievements accomplished in the modern era. Not 

 only do we perceive the great advance made by the very 

 first modern pioneers in the field, such as Malpighi, Willis, 

 Steno, Leuwenhoeck, Reaumur, but we also see each branch 

 rapidly expanding its area, each phenomenon casting new 

 light for deeper and more extensive explorations, each con- 

 clusion becoming the point of departure for new inquiries. 

 And although the fresh problems daily arising prove far 

 more complicated than older ones ; although they are of 

 such deep import and vast proportions, and offer such 

 difficulties as to appear absolutely insoluble; yet, by un- 

 exampled perseverance, hard work, profound thought, they 

 are almost invariably solved, until the veil which hid the 

 prospect is lifted, and the most mysterious aspects of nature 

 yield their secrets one after another. W T e see how paltry 

 and commonplace the original ideas of the men who were 

 once reputed thinkers are in reality, in the face of the 

 magnitude of those which have exercised the minds of our 

 modern philosophers. For the set of facts embraced by 

 the branches just surveyed would have astonished schoolmen 

 and unpractical thinkers of former ages in no small degree, 

 and aroused their scorn to the utmost. They would have 

 pointed out more suo the worthlessness of the " few observa- 

 tions" biologists, physiologists, palaeontologists, and botanists 

 have made, for they left unexplained the reason why the 

 plesiosaurus had no wings as well as the pterodactyl, or, if 



