1876 LECTURES AT NEW YORK 50 1 



There was an audience of some 2,000, and I am told that 

 when he began to speak of the time that would come when 

 they too would experience the dangers of over-population 

 and poverty in their midst, and would then understand what 

 Europe had to contend with more fully than they did, a 

 pin could have been heard to drop. At the end of the lec- 

 ture, amid the enthusiastic applause of the crowd, he made 

 his way to the front of the box where his hosts and their 

 party were, and received their warm congratulations. But 

 he missed one voice amongst them, and turning to where 

 his wife sat in silent triumph almost beyond speech, he said, 

 " And have you no word for me ? " then, himself also deeply 

 moved, stooped down and kissed her. 



This address, was delivered on Tuesday, September 12. 

 On the 14th he went to Philadelphia, and on the 15th to 

 New York, where he delivered his three lectures on Evo- 

 lution on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, September 18, 

 20, and 22. 



These lectures are very good examples of the skill with 

 which he could present a complicated subject in a simple 

 form, the subject seeming to unroll itself by the force of its 

 own naked logic, and carrying conviction the further 

 through the simplicity of its presentation. Indeed, an un- 

 friendly critic once paid him an unintended compliment, 

 when trying to make out that he was no great speaker; 

 that all he did was to set some interesting theory unadorned 

 before his audience, when such success as he attained was 

 due to the compelling nature of the subject itself. 



Since his earlier lectures to the public on evolution, the 

 paleontological evidences had been accumulating ; the case 

 could be stated without some of the reservations of former 

 days; and he brings forward two telling instances in con- 

 siderable detail, the one showing how the gulf between two 

 such apparently distinct groups as Birds and Reptiles is 

 bridged over by ancient fossils intermediate in form ; the 

 other illustrating from Professor Marsh's new collections 

 the lineal descent of the specialised Horse from the more 

 general type of quadruped. 



The farthest back of these was a creature with four toes 



