8 ANNUAL ADDRESS, MDCCCLXX. 



at the present epoch, and that geological phenomena are 

 solely owing to these slow changes ; and another doctrine, 

 that of Mr. Spencer, is, that a process of evolution is going 

 on throughout the universe in all things ; in ourselves, our 

 bodies and minds ; in morals and politics, in organized 

 beings, in heavenly bodies. Protoplasm becomes diffe- 

 rentiated and integrated into organic forms, and so with 

 the pabulum which generates animalcules in the infusions, 

 even up to the diffused matter of nebulas giving origin 

 to planets and the other heavenly orbs. I presume that, 

 as St. Paul tells the Romans, the phenomena which we, 

 as naturalists, are led to contemplate the beauty, variety, 

 order, and conformation of organic beings ; their means of 

 increase, sustenance, defence, and so on constitute the 

 great argument for the existence of the Good Father of 

 us all. 



But let us admit that other men may believe, without 

 being atheists, that dead matter may under certain circum- 

 stances be vivified to the lower forms of animal life 

 that the higher becomes differentiated and evolved from 

 the more simple ; or, with Darwin, that species are produced 

 by the law of selection, forms becoming extinct by being 

 placed at disadvantage in the struggle for existence. This 

 we may concede without necessarily agreeing with the 

 doctrines. Of none am I myself convinced. A star-fish, 

 with me, is an animal designed, morphologically- or exter- 

 nally, upon a totally different plan from that of an insect 

 or a mammal, and therefore no evolution nor natural 

 selection could change it into either ; and with me a species 

 remains for ever a species a reality, not a mere abstraction 

 of the mind. 



There are other important doctrines with respect to 



