20 
PROOFS OF EVOLUTION, 
sea-weeds. Then, through later and later deposits, 
successively appear remains of fishes, reptiles, 
mammals, and finally man, together with all the 
varying forms of plant-life appropriate to the 
successive periods. Nor is this all. In many 
cases, intermediate forms between species have 
been found,— the “Missing Links” so often in¬ 
quired for by the opponents of Evolution. Why 
all the generalized types are not found, is manifest¬ 
ly owing to the imperfection of the geological 
record, induced by the devastations of time; such 
as the action of heat and cold, and the convulsions 
of nature. Change is manifested everywhere, 
stability nowhere, except in the laws of universal 
causation. Form and substance are but puppets 
in the hands of one great master, Time. 
Astronomy and Geology! twin liberators of 
the human mind,— one taught Infinite Space, the 
other Infinite Time. Before their birth was 
mental chaos. The popular theory of the heavens 
and earth was essentially mythological, like those 
of Greece and Rome, but shorn of all their 
wondrous beauty and refinement. Astronomy 
caught from dancing globes their laws of sustenta- 
tion. Geology wrung from stubborn earth the 
jewels of her treasure-house. 
