NATURAL HISTORY — ZOOLOGY. 205 



ushered in by the Macedonian expedition, and adorned by the 

 splendid achievements of the Alexandrian school, degenerated into 

 Neoplatonism and imbecility in the fifth, to which the hand of Rome 

 put an end. From the solutions of the four great problems of 

 Greek philosophy, given in each of these five stages of its life, he 

 showed that it is possible to determine the law of the variation of 

 Greek opinion, and to establish its analogy with that of the variations 

 of opinion in individual life. Next, passing to the consideration of 

 Europe in the aggregate, Professor Draper showed that it has already 

 in part repeated these phases in its intellectual life. Its first period 

 closes with the spread of the power of Republican Rome, the second 

 witli the foundation of Constantinople, the third with the Turkish 

 invasion of Europe; we are living in the fourth. Detailed proofs of 

 the correspondence of these periods to those of Greek life, and through 

 them to those of individual life, are given in a work now printing on 

 this subject, by the author, in America. Having established this 

 conclusion, Professor Draper next briefly alluded to many collateral 

 problems or inquiries. He showed that the advances of men are due 

 to external and not to interior influences, and that in this respect a 

 nation is like a seed, which can only develop when the conditions 

 are favourable, and then only in a definite way ; that the time for 

 psychical change corresponds with that for physical, and that a 

 nation cannot advance except its material condition be touched, — 

 this having been the case throughout all Europe, as is manifested by 

 the diminution of the blue-eyed races thereof; that all organisms, 

 and even man, are dependent for their characteristics, continuance, 

 and life, on the physical conditions under which they live ; that the 

 existing apparent invariability presented by the world of organization 

 is the direct consequence of the physical equilibrium ; but that if 

 that should suffer modification, in an instant the fanciful doctrine of 

 the immutability of species would be brought to its proper value. 

 The organic world appears to be in repose because natural influences 

 have reached an equilibrium. A marble may remain motionless for 

 ever on a level table, but let the table be a little inclined, and the 

 marble will quickly run off ; and so it is with organisms in the world. 

 Prom his work on Physiology, published in 1S56, he gave his views 

 in support of the doctrine of the transmutation of species ; the tran- 

 sitional forms of the animal to the human type ; the production of 

 new ethnical elements, or nations ; and the laws of their origin, 

 duration, and death. 



The announcement of this paper attracted an immense audience to 

 the section, which met in the library of the New Museum. The dis- 

 cussion was commenced by the Rev. Mr. Cresswell, who denied that 

 any parallel could be drawn between the intellectual progress of man 

 and the physical development of the lower animals. So far from 

 Professor Draper being correct with regard to the history of Greece, 

 its masterpieces in literature — the Iliad and Odyssey — were produced 

 during its national infancy. The theory of intellectual development 

 proposed was directly opposed to the known facts of the history of 

 man. Sir J3. Brodie stated he could not subscribe to the hypothesis of 



