24 



TROnCAL EDUCATION. 



^M'oat Cilacifil epoch, ati.l of that vast alow socular 

 cooling wliich proco*lod and led up to it, from the 

 hRginnijig of tho Miocene or Mid-Tertiary pei'iod. Our 

 Eni'o])e;iii ideas, poor, liarsh, and narrow, are mainly 

 formed amonL; a chilled and stunted fauna and flora, 

 under inclement «kies, and in gloomy days, all of which 

 can give us but a very cramped and faint conception of 

 the joyous exuberance, the teeming vitality, the fierce 

 hand-to-hand conllict, and the victorious exultation of 

 tropical life in its full free development. 



All through the Piimary and Secondary epochs of 

 geology, it is now pretty certain, hothouse conditions 

 practically prevailed almost without a break over the 

 whole world from pole to pole. It may be true, indeed, 

 as Dr. Croll believes (and his reasoning on the point I 

 confess is fairly convincing), that from time to time 

 glacial periods in one or other hemisphere broke in for a 

 while upon the genial warmth that characterised the 

 greater part of those vast and innneasurable primaeval 

 a3ons. ]>ut even if that were so — if at long intervals the 

 world for some hours in its cosmical year was chilled and 

 frozen in an insignificant cap at either extremity — these 

 casual episodes in a long story do not interfere with the 

 general truth of the principle that life as a whole during 

 the greater portion o^ ILo antique existence lias been 

 carried on under essentially tropical conditions. No 

 matter what geological formation we examine, we find 

 everywhere the same tale unfolded in plain inscriptions 

 before our eyes. Take, for example, the giant club- 

 mosses and luxuriant tree-ferns nature-printed on shales 

 of the coal age in Britain : and we see in the wild under- 



