THE PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. 115 
appealed to palzontological evidence by which he traces every specific 
form through provinces of space uniform in their relations to the order 
of geological strata, and therefore determinate as to the relative period 
of time within which they sprung into being, ran their appointed course, 
and were superseded by new orders of life. Yet it is not to be doubted 
that the record is very imperfect, and so leaves room for piecing it 
out with theory, hypotheses, and a comprehensive generalization. 
Nor need we affirm that the Lamarckian idea of an abnormal organic 
power of self-development ; or that which assigns to external influences 
a modifying power on the characters of species : is wholly unsupported 
by observation. Neither these, nor the opinions set forth by Darwin 
in favour of the derivation of well determined forms of one period 
from others more or less diverse in earlier formations, are altogether 
unsustained by evidence; though they can carry us but a short way 
in accounting for, or determining the plan of creation. They may 
induce us to reject the claims of many specific variations in organic 
form to be ranked as distinct primary species; but they leave the 
grand questions of the origin of species and the source of organic 
life, precisely where they were. We are still free to look upon the 
successive orders of life as the manifestations of an intelligent creative 
power: the intellectual conceptions of the supreme Intelligence by 
whom the universe subsists, wrought out, like all else in His visible 
creation, by material means. 
But leaving this aspect of the question, 1 rather turn to the con- 
sideration of the bearing of the bold naturalist’s views on the origin of 
man himself. Drawing his ingenious theories to a close he exclaims : 
“‘The whole history of the world, as at present known, although of a 
length quite incomprehensible by us, will hereafter be recognised as a 
mere fragment of time, compared with the ages that have elapsed 
since the first creature, the progenitor of innumerable extinct and 
living descendants, was created. In the distant future I see open 
fields for far more important researches. Psychology will be based on 
a new foundation, that of the necessary acquirement of each mental 
power and capacity by gradation. Light will be thrown on the 
origin of man and his history. Authors of the highest eminence 
seem to be fully satisfied with the view that each species has been 
independently created. To my mind it accords better with what we 
know of the laws impressed on matter by the Creator, that the pro- 
duction and extinction of the past and present inhabitants of the 
