CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



Preface, iii 



Herbert Spencer, 3 



His life and personal characteristics ; his views on ed- 

 ucation ; his religions opinions ; his earlier writings ; 

 the relation of his work to Darwinism and the evolu- 

 tion philosophy. 



By Daniel Geeenleaf Thompson. 



Charles Eobert Darwin, 25 



His ancestry, life, and personal characteristics ; the 

 voyage of the Beagle ; discovery of natural selection ; 

 the two factors of the Darwinian theory ; Darwin and 

 Wallace ; Louis Agassiz and evolution ; influence of 

 Darwin's studies on his religious opinions. Evolution 

 before Darwin ; views of Goethe and Lamarck. 



By Rev. John W. Chadwick. 



Solar and Planetary Evolution, 55 



How suns and worlds come into being ; the nebular 

 hypothesis of Laplace and Faye ; Creation or Evolu- 

 tion ? Did the material universe ever have a begin- 

 ning ? 



By Garrett P. Serviss. 



Evolution of the Earth, 79 



The story of geology ; how the world grew ; the order 

 of stratification ; the action of fire and water ; prep- 

 aration of the earth for vegetable and animal life. 



By Dr. Lewis G. Janes. 



Evolution of Vegetal Life, Ill 



How does life begin ? The problem of spontaneous 

 generation ; morphology — the forms of leaves and 

 flowers ; the geographical distribution of plants ; 

 methods of fertilization ; distinctions and likenesses 

 between plants and animals. 



By William Potts. 

 (v) 



