Edward Livingston Youmans 77 



infinite efficacy, yet grinds with wearisome slow- 

 ness. It was Mr. Darwin's discovery of natural 

 selection which first brought this truth home to us ; 

 but Sir Charles Lyell had in 1830 shown how 

 enormous effects are wrought by the cumulative 

 action of slight and unobtrusive causes, and this 

 had much to do with turning men's minds toward 

 some conception of evolution. It was about 1847 

 that Mr. Youmans was deeply interested in the 

 work of geologists, as well as in the Nebular Theory, 

 to which recent discoveries were adding fresh con- 

 firmation. Some time before this he had read 

 that famous book " Vestiges of Creation," and 

 although Professor Agassiz truly declared that it 

 was an unscientific book, crammed with antiquated 

 and exploded fancies, I suspect that Mr. Youmans 

 felt that amid all the chaff there was a very sound 

 and sturdy kernel of truth. 



Among the books which Mr. Youmans projected 

 at this time, the first was a compendious history of 

 progress in discovery and invention ; but, after 

 he had made extensive preparations, a book was 

 published so similar in scope and treatment that 

 he abandoned the undertaking. Another work 

 was a treatise on arithmetic, on a new and philo- 

 sophical plan ; but, when this was approaching com- 

 pletion, he again found himself anticipated, this 



