Is Man a Finality of Organic Evolution? 75 
siderations, with others, seem to teach that the column of organic suc- 
cession is complete in man. The lower forms, gradually and regularly ascend- 
ing from base to summit, constitute to the shaft of the column; but in man we 
have a sudden expansion, an ornateness of finish, an incorporation of new 
ideas, which designate him as the capital and completion of the grand column 
of organic existence. Consider, in the third place, man’s unlimited geo- 
graphical range. When the first animals were introduced upon the earth they 
found the ocean encompassing it on every side, and creating a uniformity of 
physical conditions which enabled them to range through every latitude and 
longitude in later ages, as the continents with their mountain ranges. Because 
differentiated from the terrestrial mass, and diverse climates were called into 
existence, we find that animals were restricted to successively narrower 
limits. Not only did the growing differentiation of the different regions of 
the earth lead toward the restriction of the faunas, but there is something in 
the higher organisms themselves which specializes them in their adapta- 
tions and unfits them for so wide a range, even with external conditions un- 
changed. Thus, as animal life advanced upward, it became more narrowed 
in the range of its species. The species in possession of the earth immediately 
previous to man were more restricted than any of their predecessors. It would 
certainly be expected from all these analogies that man, on his appearance, 
would be limited to the narrowest bounds of all. What is the fact? Man 
overleaps all barriers. Climates, mountains, oceans, deserts, form no impedi- 
ments to his migration. He, the first of all animals, has literally extended 
over the whole earth, and fulfilled the command to take possession, to use and 
toemploy. What does this signify, if not that man is the completion of the 
series? Animal existence, first narrowed to the smallest limits in its specific 
range, thus suddenly extended to the widest. Man occupies the whole earth; 
he is not only the finishing stroke, but excludes a successor. 
Consider, lastly, man’s erect attitude. When the fish, the earliest repre- 
sentative of the type which embraces man, was introduced into the waters of 
the Devonian sea, the vertebral axis was hung in a hosizontal position, and 
the animal was not endowed with even the power to raise the head by bending 
the neck. Triassic and jurassic enabiasaures, while they continued to inhabit 
the water, breathed the air, and held the head habitually a little elevated. 
The crockadillions, to these endowments, added the power to crawl upon the 
ground. The Dinornis of the crustaceous age walked upon the land with 
the body elevated above the ground, but the head remaining nearly horizontal; 
the birds assumed an oblique position of the spinal axis; and most of the Ter- 
tiary mammals, which followed them, could carry this attitude from the hori- 
zontal to the semi-crest position; the higher monkeys lived normally in a sub- 
erect position, still supporting themselves by the four extremeties. Man, 
first and alone, assumed a perpendicular attitude, and turned his countenance 
toward heaven and talked with the Being who formed him. It is evident no 
further progress can be made in this direction. The elevation of the spinal 
axis has reached a mathematical limit; the consummation of organic exalt- 
ation is attained. Life has been likened unto a tree and man the fruit 
thereof; and, if he is, beyond the fruit the tree cannot grow. A tree ad- 
vances from root to stem, from stem to branch, from branch to leaf, and from 
leaf to blossom and fruit, each rising in importance above the other; but 
when the fruit is attained all that can be done is to perfect it. The root of 
the great tree of life is the radiata, thus raying, ramifying arms and fingers, 
forming its spreading radicles; the trunk of this tree, the mollusca; their 
shelly covering, its bark; the jointed bodies of the articulates form its 
branches, the vertebrates are the leaves. [very leaf has a mid-rib passing 
through its center, from which ribs go to each side to strenghten it, as in ver- 
tebrates the backbone passes through the centre of the animal and ribs proceed 
