10 CONNECTICUT GEOL. AND NAT. HIST. SURVEY. [Bull. 



in all its manifold manifestations. It is the record of all the 

 changes and progressive modifications that have taken place 

 among organic forms since their first appearance in remote 

 geological antiquity. It seeks to ascertain the value of various 

 adjustments to external conditions, of improvements in mechani- 

 cal contrivances and other factors making for an advance; and, 

 in tracing this line of progress, it aims to assign to different 

 groups, or to different grades' of the same group, their proper 

 position and relative importance in the scheme of upward trans' 

 formation. 



If the mystery of the beginning of all things must forever 

 remain insoluble for us, as Darvifin with his life-work behind 

 him was obliged to admit,^ paleontology at least dispels for us 

 some of the obscurity of former geological cycles, during which 

 life existed on our planet and left memorials of its infinitely 

 slow progress along the road to perfection. Perfection, that is, 

 in the Darwinian sense: meaning the production of the higher 

 animals, and their capacity for psychic advance. An impressive 

 spectacle this; no one can contemplate it seriously without feel- 

 ing the sense of that infinity in contrast with which a man recog- 

 nizes his own finitude. Then it is that one feels in accord with 

 Keats' view: 



"Stop and consider! life is but a day; 

 A fragile dew-drop on its perilous way 

 From a tree's summit; a poor Indian's sleep 

 While bis boat hastens to the monstrous steep 

 Of Montmorenci. ..." 



It is not only a just, but a truly ennobling conception to re- 

 gard paleontology as an extension of human history. "La 

 science des sciences, c'est done la science de I'homme," Montaigne 

 aptly remarks. Would we comprehend our own nature, and seek 

 to know what man in his essence really is, what he has been, 

 whence he came, whither bound, what destiny he may achieve, 

 and, finally, what value attaches to his mortality — to acquire 

 this self-knowledge we must study that larger nature of which 

 man forms so insignificant a part. The soul grows in knowl- 

 edge -of itself as it realizes the contrast with the grandeur, the 

 sheer massiveness of nature, and the eternity of the hidden forces 



• Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, edited by Francis Darwin. 



