ZOOLOGICAL EELATIONS, 



Community of Life-conditions — Structural Affinity to other 

 Animals — ^Ascent tlirougli Adaptive Modification — Principle 

 of Variation ever operative — Mental Affinity to other Ani- 

 mals — Man Improvable and Progressive — Theory of Spiritual 

 Community of Life — Our First Proposition. 



Man's connection with the great scheme of animated 

 nature is intimate and inseparable. The physical con- 

 ditions under which life exists are the same to him as 

 to other animals. Air, land, and water, heat, light, 

 and moisture, are as essential to him as to the other 

 forms and grades of vitality. He originates like other 

 animals, emhryologically passes through the same 

 stages, and when launched on the field of independent 

 being is subjected to the same functional round, and 

 to the same struggle for existence. Life, growth, re- 

 production, and decay, are phases of being characteristic 

 of all that lives. There may be differences in degree, 

 as there are differences in form and function, but 

 there is no exemption from these conditions and re- 

 quirements. Man suffers thirst and hunger, heat and 

 cold, pain and pleasure, much as other animals do. 

 If he is stronger than some, he is weaker than others ; 



