THE PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. 117 
conditions has man been introduced into the most diverse and widely 
separated provinces of the animal world? It is to the comprehen- 
sive bearings of the latter indeed, that the former owes its origin ; 
for what is the use of entertaining the question, prematurely forced 
upon us: Are all men of oneand the same species ? while authorities 
in science are still so much at variance as to what species really is; and 
writers who turn with incredulous contempt from the idea that all 
men are descended from Adam, can nevertheless look with compla- 
cency on their probable descent from apes! One revolutionary class 
of thinkers, having its representatives among the ablest men of science 
on this continent, incline to the belief that species is a mere logical 
invention of the systematiser, and that the older naturalists have 
converted convenient definitions and the necessary formule of classi- 
fication, into assumed realities. On the other hand, the extreme 
phalanx of their opponents invent a series of catastrophes, by which 
each geological period is closed,—the finished act, as it were, of a 
grand cosmic tragedy,—and all existing life is swept away, to give 
place to the creation of new species for the succeeding epoch of a 
renovated earth. This mysterious question of the origin of species is 
accordingly trammelled in part by that most dangerous of all hin- 
drances to free inquiry and unbiased scientific judgment: The fore- 
gone popular conclusions relative to the supposed terms in which 
alone it can be answered, consistently with the inspired history of 
creation. Hence, on the one hand, development theories and trans- 
mutation of species; and on the other the more consistent idea not 
only of permanency of species, but also, along with it, of the recog- 
nition of the same great general laws which now govern the natural 
world having been in operatiun throughout all the countless ages of 
organic being which geology reveals to us. 
Such inquiries into first principles necessarily bring about a col- 
lision between the conservative and the progressive ranks of 
thought; but in the conflict—whatever dust and heat arise,—the 
inevitable destruction of some long cherished error is of itself a clear 
gain. The course and tendency of thought may meanwhile be indi- 
cated to us by some of its most striking aspects :—e. g., by the start- 
ling propositions of Agassiz relative to supposed relations between 
the different types of man, and the geographical distribution and local 
circumscription of species in the world of inferior animal life. On 
the other hand, Professor Dana has produced his “Thoughts on 
