102 The American Geologist. February, 1892 
The purpose of the work was neither to defend nor oppose the 
doctrine of evolution, but to offer expositions and discriminations. 
The fact of an evolutionary method in nature he unreservedly 
maintained, and held it to be a proof of intelligence. Whether 
the evolution of events is effected’by a method of material contin- 
uity, he deemed the only question at issue. He held that in the 
inorganic world the reality of this method must be acknowledged. 
Whether a material continuity runs through the series of or- 
ganic forms, is the residual question, to which all scientific 
controversy has to be narrowed. He proceeded to indicate the 
general evidences adduced by evolutionists in support of the 
affirmative, and then brought forward a series of difficulties, most 
of which, however, were regarded as applying rather to Darwin- 
ism than to the general doctrine of continuity. Supposing this 
doctrine inductively established as representing a fact in nature, 
it still remained to ascertain the methods and instrumentalities 
through which the organic continuity is maintained. This is 
the field of the theories—of which Darwinism is one. Finally, 
having agreed on the nature of the physiological processes in- 
volved, it is necessary still to ascertain the or/gin of those pro- 
cesses, and of the forces which sustain and guide them—that is, 
the philosophic question of ultimate causation remains. From 
such grounds he maintained that no form of evolution-theory 
can be set down as essentially atheistic. 
The fourth visitation of death in his dearly loved family was 
announced to him by cable-dispatch shortly before Christmas, 
1875, when he was about to ascend the platform to deliver a public 
lecture in St. Paul, Minn. Diphtheria had smitten his youngest 
daughter at Berlin. With masterful self-control he commanded 
his grief to be silent and his thoughts to be on his evening topic, 
and he gave his lecture as announced. To one who knew the 
tenderness of his heart and fond doting which he lavished on his 
children, this abstraction of himself, almost from himself, for an 
hour anda half, with such a shock fresh on his consciousness, 
revealed the doubleness of his existence. He lived a public life 
of activity which was wonderful for its accomplishments, but he 
had a domestic and personal life which, in its recorded memories 
and mementoes, was almost equally voluminous. The drapery of 
a private grief was hung continually on his heart, but he carried 
in his hand, as his only public and outward symbol of action, a 
