1 48 Literary and Philosophical Society. 



growth of all things from the lowest point to the highest. 

 He goes even farther than the lowest material and points, as 

 he may be said to begin with mere ideas, for example : 

 ' There is the same progress, according to my hypothesis, 

 in the formation of man, and the same distinction between 

 the elements of this species, and the species itself.' He 

 leaves the body, as it is his intention to keep to the design 

 and progress of language, but on p. 1 82 he says, ' This is 

 the scale of being, rising by progressive gradations from 

 mere matter and sense to intellect.' 



His strong belief that the ourang-outang was a man has 

 no influence on this theory, and the length of his disserta- 

 tion, which went over nearly all history and all the usual 

 reading of men of the time, served only to weaken his main 

 argument, so that few read his six volumes and almost as 

 few ever refer to the book. It is very important, if one 

 does refer to it, to use the second edition. The general 

 ideas are in the first volume, before the special discussion 

 on language and its progress begins. 



We may conclude that gradation exists in all creation, 

 and the only difference of opinion exists as to the time of 

 the rise of each step. Man is an animal with a skeleton 

 and anatomy resembling other animals so closely that every 

 lion, tiger, and gnat recognises it. We live on the earth 

 and are built of it, and we may as readily believe that we 

 have passed through the stages of the lower living animals 

 as through the still lower stages of the vegetable and 

 the dead animals out of which we have certainly and visibly 

 been made. 



Here we may have Mr. Charles White's views brought 

 in. 



' Every one who has made natural history an object of 



