INFANT LIFE. 4 1 3 



the history of animated forms. But this idea arises 

 from human vanity and ignorance. The most remark- 

 able event, after the origiri of life, is certainly that to 

 which we now allude ; the first glimmering of consci- 

 ousness and reason. Yet even here we can draw no 

 dividing line. The animal becomes conscious that he 

 desires food, and at certain periods, a mate ; but the 

 desires themselves are not new ; they existed and they 

 ruled him long before. When developed to a certain 

 point, he begins to " take notice," as the nurses say ; 

 but his nature remains the same. However, this in- 

 telligence becomes in time itself a force, and gradually 

 obtains to some extent the faculty of directing the 

 forces by which the animal was once despotically ruled. 

 By an effort of the human brain, for example, the re- 

 productive force, or tendency, or instinct, can be obli- 

 terated and suppressed. 



What we have to say, then, respecting the origin of 

 our early ancestors is this : that when matter was sub- 

 jected to a complicated play of forces, chief among 

 which was solar influence, plants and animals came 

 into life ; and that when animals were subjected to 

 an ever-increasing variety of forces, they became 

 varied in their structure ; and that when their 

 structure had attained a certain measure of variety 

 they became conscious of their own existence ; 

 and that then nature endowed them with the 

 faculty of preserving their lives, and that of their 

 species by means of their own conscious efforts. 

 Next, it will be shown that the successful competi- 

 tors in the struggle for existence, not only obtained 

 the food and females for which they strove, but also 

 by means of the efforts which they made in 

 order to obtain them, raised themselves uncon- 



