ARCHJiJOLOGY AND EVOLUTION. 127 



COMMUNICATION RECEIVED 



ON THE FOREGOING PAPER. 



Mr. Philip Vernon Smiih, M.A., LL.D., writes: — 

 The two papers read this evening are interestiog complements 

 the one to the other. My friend, Mr. Bompas, has adduced cogent 

 reasoning to prove that what may be called, from the human 

 standpoint, natural evolution, is accomplished by design. May not 

 another argument in favour of this conclusion be deduced from 

 what, on the other hand, may be called artificial evolution ? 

 Besides that which has taken place without man's intervention, or 

 without direct purpose on his part, what changes both in flora and 

 in fauna have been effected by his deliberate design ? New 

 varieties of garden flowers, fruits and vegetables have been 

 evolved, or existing species have been developed and brought to 

 perfection. Among the domestic animals, dogs, horses, cattle, 

 sheep, pigs and poultry, similar improvements have, by care and 

 attention, been effected in their physical form and faculties. Can 

 we believe that man has done this by design, and that the Supreme 

 Will and Intelligence, on the other hand, left to chance and acci- 

 dent the more marvellous feats of Evolution — if to Evolution they 

 be due — with which the natural world abounds ? 



Mr. Bompas has well distinguished between vegetable or 

 unconscious life, animal or conscious life, and man's intellectual 

 life. It is interesting, however, to observe the evolutionary 

 results which the higher of these lives produces upon the 

 lower, no less than the lower upon the higher. The reciprocal 

 action of vegetable life on animal life, and vice versa, has been 

 referred to by Mr. Bompas. Not less noticeable is the meta- 

 physical effect produced on domestic animals by the intellectual 



