president’s address. 
241 
remarkable and wonderfully able authors of antiquity was 
Lucretius. His speculations seem to anticipate some of the 
most profound discoveries of modern times. And though, as 
Mr. Houghton has pointed out to me, there is no passage in his 
writings which can be said to shadow forth Darwin’s definite 
explanation of the origin of created things, i.e., the evolution 
of animals or plants by natural selection, on the contrary 
Lucretius frequently insists on the unchangeable nature of 
animals. “ All things,” he says, “ are so constant, that the 
different birds, all in succession, exhibit in their body the 
distinctive marks of their kind; each creature has its powers 
defined, its boundary mark deeply set.” At the same time 
there are some very striking and interesting passages, which 
shadow forth 'particular points , which bear on and are neces¬ 
sitated by the Darwinian explanation, especially in relation to 
what we now call Teleology , or the doctrine of final causes. He 
says to Memmius: “ In this matter you must vehemently shun 
and anxiously avoid the weakness of erroneously supposing 
that the bright lights of the eyes are made in order that we 
might be able to see, and that the extremities of the shanks 
and thighs were attached to the feet as a base in order that 
we might take long steps on the road, or, moreover, that the 
fore-arms were fitted to the strong upper arms, and that 
ministering hands on each side were given in order that we 
might be able to perform the needful duties of life. Other 
explanations of a similar kind are given, but all of them put 
effect for cause ( prcepostera , i.e., last put first) through wrong- 
reason [perversa ratione), for nothing was born in the body in 
order that we might use it, but that which is born begets for 
itself a use.” He elsewhere speaks of things used in accord¬ 
ance with the wants of life, “ things made by man for the 
purpose of being used, as javelins, shields, beds, and cups,” but 
records his opinion that, on the contrary, “ the birth of the 
tongue was long anterior to language, and the ears were made 
before sound was heard, and in fine that all the members 
existed before there was any employment for them, and that 
they could not therefore have grown for the purpose 
of being used.” The validity of this reasoning may appear 
to some in the present day as questionable and objection¬ 
able, as, doubtless, they did to the followers of Plato 
and Xenophon and other teachers, who laid great stress 
on the argument of design ; but I have troubled you with 
a quotation from the work of an author born 100 years 
before our era, both for its great intrinsic interest, as well as 
to emphasise what appears to me to be the most distinguishing 
feature in the character and system of Darwin, as in his brilliant 
