INTRODUCTION. 



"I cannot but feel surprised that a theory -which thus teaches us 

 humility for the past, faith in the present, and hope for the future, 

 should have been regarded as opposed to the principles of Christianity, 

 or the interests of true religion." LUBBOCK'S "Prehistoric Times," 

 2nd edition, p. 581. 



THE Theory of the Evolution of Living Beings, 

 more familiarly known as the Theory of the 

 Origin of Species, has continued to attract an 

 increasing amount of public attention, ever since 

 1 859, when Darwin published his great work on 

 the subject. Although the principle of Evolu- 

 tion was not new, yet the crude and unscientific 

 speculations of the earlier Evolutionists had 

 failed to produce any deep or permanent im- 

 pression on either the scientific or the popular 

 mind ; and it was left for Darwin and Wallace 

 to promulgate a theory which could be seen to 

 be both scientifically probable, and easily intel- 

 ligible, and capable of accounting for a great 

 number of familiar facts which had previously 

 been regarded as lying almost beyond the 

 domain of science, and therefore as incapable 

 of explanation. It is universally acknowledged 



