38 
those terrible cataclysms and great breaks in animal forms, with which we 
are acquainted. No doubt Mr. Darwin has done an immense amount of 
good in showing us the wonderful improvements that may be made in species 
but he might have got a great deal of his information by going among th 
nower of breeding in altering and modifying species. That only shows tne 
immense powe Jd plasticity to be found within i the species , u there is^o 
an atom of evidence, as yet produced, to prove Darwins own theory. I have 
heard Mr. Eeddie’s paper with very great pleasure, . and I agree 
tinction he draws between material and moral civilization They are quite 
different thino-s and ought not to be mingled together. Unfortunately the 
term civffization ” is seldom defined in such an argument, and the word i 
used so diversely and in so many different ways by different men, that we 
are bound to have a definition before we can form any opinion upon . 
The Chairman.— I should like to ask you whether you have paid any 
attention to the facts and records in relation to the theory of a meta age. 
H Mr y W R Mmmil-Merely cursorily as an archeeologist, but I cannot say 
that I should like to give an opinion upon it now. I can 
confidence that I have examined the first Stone Age smc e 
formed according to the very nature and structure of flmt. (Hear, hear.) 
Kev C A. Kow.— In the Darwinian theory there is a most important poin 
overlooked, and that is the enormous gap that there must be even between 
Z Ct stage of the animal and the first stage of the man, where the one 
turns into the other. The animal is essentially unprogressive, while the very 
d a o a man gives us a notion of a great degree of progression and capa- 
X for advancement. Between the animal ancestor and the flmt human 
child we know that there must have been a great gap Animals move as 
it were in a very limited sphere, while man has in himself great, I had almost 
saiff 6 indefinite^ power of progression and advancement » - 
important point, which has been very much overlooked. Our hie & 
in the habit of appealing to what we may call the dark ages of 
have no historical records. In those ages you may theorize- lor ever 
the few small historical memorials which remain. But w y no vie 
question by the light of actual existing history 1 If we do that, it i q 
plain it does not afford us the smallest foundation for believing th t man 
is capable of advancing from an animal, as these theorists ’ 
within the historical period increased in mental power or in bodily ” 
to lch an extent as to lead us to believe that he is progressing towards^ 
development into some higher being ? (Hear, hear.) o “ h las t 
there l not an atom of evidence to induce us to beheve that w Am the DJ 
3,000 years man’s body has improved in its actual type ; and so far as histo y 
