40 EVOLUTION. 



Dr. Hunt states that the earth has already ab- 

 stracted from the air chemical elements, such as 

 carbon, equal in weight to not less than two hundred 

 times its atmosphere. These elements, which com- 

 pose rocks, plants, and animals, he suggests have 

 been supplied gradually to the air from this ether or 

 gas that fills the space around earth and stars. 



As we trace back human life to the plant cell, we 

 can trace its earlier origin and present sustenance 

 indirectly to the ether. 



History of Evolution. 



Evolution is by some considered to be a new doc- 

 trine, but like all the great discoveries of man, it has 

 grown through the ages by slow gains of knowledge. 

 Its principles are foreshadowed in the teachings of 

 Greek philosophers two thousand years ago. Anaxi- 

 mander, Heraclitus, Empedocles, Democritus, the 

 Roman poet Lucretius, and others, treated of the 

 natural development of the world from simple ele- 

 ments, and of all life from atoms. 



In later times, Kant, Laplace, Goethe, Wolff, 

 Lamarck, Von Baer,and others, added to the advance 

 of the theory ; and in our own day, Darwin, Wal- 

 lace, and Spencer have so classified facts that Evolu- 

 tion, in its main outlines, has become, to most 

 scientific minds, no longer a theory, but a proved fact. 



An eminent naturalist says : " With one excep- 

 tion, every man in* the world who can properly be 



