50 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS 



CONNECTING LINKS. 



Read before the Hamilton Association, February i2th^ i8gi. 

 BY H. B. SMALL. 



The term " Connecting Links," might perhaps, with more pro- 

 priety, be expressed under the wider term development, or the state 

 of progression from one phase or class to another. 



As an example of this, take the infant and the man. There is 

 little in common between these two stages, save form and existence. 

 But trace the various intermediate stages to see the links of develop- 

 ment. The first movements of an infant are automatic and directed 

 solely to the supply of its physical wants. New sensations are con- 

 stantly excited by surrounding objects, which call into exercise all 

 the dormant powers of mind ; notions are acquired of the character 

 and position of external objects. An attachment to persons and 

 places begins to manifest itself. As the child advances in age the 

 power of observation is strengthened, the perceptions become more 

 distinct, the powers of reflection are called out which prompt him to 

 reason upon the causes of what he observes, and his growing intelli- 

 gence enables him to direct his actions to the attainment of objects 

 he desires. 



Then comes a development of moral feeling, and the intuitive 

 perceptiotis of the lower stage of infancy become, through the con- 

 necting links recorded, the acquired perceptions of the man. 



"Man," says Humboldt, "ever connects on from what lies at 

 hand." Progress, degradation, survival, revival and modification, are 

 all modes of the connection that binds together the complex network 

 of civilization. A glance into the trivial details of daily life shows 

 how we are but transmitters and modifiers of the result of long past 

 ages. In the history of firearms, the clumsy wheel-lock, in which a 

 notched steel wheel was turned by a handle against the flint till a 

 spark caught the priming, led to the invention of the flint lock ; that 

 in time passed by an obvious modification into the percussion lock, 

 the gun itself now changing again from muzzle-loading to breech- 



