THE NEANDERTHAL SKULL. 35 



procure food, or to protect themselves from 

 injury. 



But inasmuch as this theory has been 

 so brilliantly stated by the celebrated Mr. 

 Canning, author of the Anti-Jacobin, let 

 me remind you of his clever conception of 

 the origin of all things in general, and the 

 doctrine of evolution in particular. " We 

 may conceive," argued Mr. CANNING, " the 

 whole of our present universe to have 

 been originally concentrated in a single 

 point, we may conceive this primeval 

 point, or punctum saliens of the universe, 

 evolving itself by its own energies, to have 

 moved forward in a right line ad infinitum 

 until it grew tired ; after which the right 

 line which it had generated would begin 

 to put itself in motion in a lateral direc- 

 tion, describing an area of infinite extent. 

 This area, as it became conscious of its oivn 

 existence, would begin to ascend according 

 as its specific gravity would determine it, 

 forming an immense solid space filled with 

 vacuum, and capable of containing the 

 present universe. Space being thus ob- 

 D 2 



