166 CHAPTERS ON EVOLUTION. 



outlines foreshadow tolerably well the actual details of the finished 

 work. And what is true of the relations between reptiles and birds, 

 or of those between the various races of crocodiles which, it is 

 important to note, living and extinct, are bound together in a series 

 almost as graduated and complete as are the horses and their pro- 

 genitors what is true of the connecting links betwixt quadrupeds that 

 to-day appear distinct and separate, must by every consideration, alike 

 of logic and common sense, be held to apply with equal force to the 

 entire world of animal and plant life. There is no law of evolution 

 for one group, and of special creation for another. There can be 

 logically postulated no evolution for the lower races, and some 

 process of " creation " for the higher forms of animal life or for man 

 himself. Uniformity and sequence exist wholly, or not at all. " If 

 one series of species," says Huxley, " has come into existence by the 

 operation of natural causes, it seems folly to deny that all may have 

 arisen in the same way." The unbiassed mind, contemplating the 

 varied phases of living nature, will stand in no dread of any conclu- 

 sions respecting the order of this universe, to which evolution may 

 lead ; for, after all, evolution, in tracing out the ways of nature, is 

 but the handmaid of truth, and it is with the truth as it is in nature, 

 that the earnest mind will most desire to close. 



