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cease to feed, and undergo transformation, then commence 
to feed again, come to the surface, and enter the mouths of 
rivers. The difficulties to be overcome in successfully 
carrying out research such as this are enormous, and the 
surmounting of them is a worthy example of the care and 
perseverance of the naturalist of the present day. 
But perhaps the greatest of all achievements of modern 
times—that which has done more for the advancement of 
natural science than has ever been done before—has been 
the establishment of the principles of evolution. As, in the 
last century, Linnzeus by his systematic work gave natu- 
ralists an intelligible method of procedure, as Buffon by his 
pompous writings attracted wide-spread attention, and 
Gilbert White by his simple story of nature’s wonders drew 
multitudes of observers into the field, so Darwin, by his 
scrupulously accurate observations and elaborately sup- 
ported theories, raised the whole world of naturalists, some 
in anger, some in incredulity, but the vast majority to 
renewed exertions and the ultimate acceptation of the 
doctrines that he had propounded. 
That the theory of evolution is not accepted by all I am 
well aware. There are men among us—men of capability 
and powers of keen perception—who will have none of it, 
who cling to the theory of special creation, who will 
not admit that the whole universe is in a state of transition. 
The ancients fondly believed that the earth was a flat disc 
of land surrounded by a great world-river. No doubt all 
that their senses could show them proved to their minds 
that this was so. But we must not be led into error as they 
were by accepting just, and only just, what appears on the 
surface. Nature’s methods are often deeply hidden, and 
need much diligent seeking. 
One of the chief difficulties in the way of the acceptation 
of the theory of evolution by those of opposite opinions is, 
no doubt, the preconceived idea that this world of ours has 
been in existence some six thousand years or thereabouts, 
and that its facial aspect has always been much as it now is. 
But nature knows no limits of time in the sense that we 
know them. To adequately appreciate the situation we 
must first disabuse our minds of the cramped ideas that our 
every-day life has instilled into them. So admirably was 
the situation described by Sir Charles Lyell in his address 
to the British Association at their Bath meeting in 1864, 
although he was then speaking of events of a comparatively 
modern period, that 1 am tempted, even at the risk of 
