468 PROCEEDINGS OF PHILADELPHIA MEETING. 



ment of the or^'anic kingdom to the buikliiig of a temple under the intel- 

 ligent plans of an architect outside of the work and acting, as it were, on 

 foreign material, ratlier than to an egg evolving under its own resident 

 forces. He could not at first see tliat natural processes are really divine 

 processes, and natural forces are forms of the divine energy resident in 

 nature ; yet it is plain to see now that his mind was so saturated with 

 the idea of evokition and his mode of thought so determined by evolu- 

 tion methods that he was bound by philosophic consistency^ to reach 

 eventually a true evolution point of view in the case of tlie organic king- 

 dom as well as in that of the earth. 



Let me, however, in passing do justice to Agassiz, for in doing so I do 

 justice also to Dana for emlu'acing his views. 



Tliere can be no doubt that Agassiz prepared tlie way for the theor}" of 

 evolution of the organic kingdom, and even laid its whole foundation, in 

 the three great laws of succession of organic forms on the earth. These 

 are: (1) Tiie law of dlfferent'Kdloii of specialized from generalized forms. 

 These early generalized forms he called S3nithetic types, combining types, 

 prophetic types. (2) The law of successive calmhiation of higher and 

 higher dominant classes. This was embodied in his idea of successive 

 reigns. (3) The law of progress of the whole, though not necessarily of all 

 the parts. These three laws of succession of organic forms are literally 

 the formal laws of phylogeny and therefore of evolution. It only re- 

 mained to reduce these formal laws of succession to a natural i)rocess. 

 This Darwin did. Upon no other foundation could a solid structure have 

 been raised. Without Agassiz, Darwin could not have been. 



Now, Dana cordially adopted Agassiz's view of the development of 

 the organic kingdom. ]^v its grandeur and (Comprehensiveness it both 

 captivated his mind and satisfied his religious nature, but in his own 

 peculiar field, namely, that of development of earth-features, he alwa3\s 

 spoke only of natural processes and natural causes. Agassiz's strong 

 and dominating nature never yielded to the new doctrine. Even if he 

 had lived to Dana's age, it is probable he would never have adopted the 

 modern acceptation of evolution. Daim's more gentle and plastic nature 

 could not thus set in unchangeable form. His open receptiveness of 

 mind could not close itself to truth, even though it came from unex- 

 pected quarters and in unwelcome guise. He finally came to see that 

 the grandeur of Agassiz's views was not lessened by admitting a natural 

 process. In his latest utterances he cordially accepted evolution in its 

 modern sense and as applied to the organic kingdom as not only the 

 truest, l)ut also the noblest view of the ])rocess of development. But 

 while he held firmly and expressed clearly this idea of evolution of the 

 whole earth through all time, yet he recognized the impossibility, in the 



