EVOLUTION AND CREATION.

CHIMPANZEES (Troglodytes).

GORILLAS (Troglodytes).

EVOLUTION AND CREATION:

BY

HERBERT JUNIUS HARDWICKE, M.D.,
FELLOW OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS, AND MEMBER OF
THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS OF EDINBURGH; FELLOW OF THE
LONDON MEDICAL SOCIETY; HONORARY FELLOW OF THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL
SOCIETY OF LIVERPOOL, THE SOCIETY OF MEDICINE OF ATHENS, AND THE SOCIETIES
OF DOSIM. MEDICINE OF PARIS AND MADRID; VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE MEDICAL
BRANCH OF THE MALTHUSIAN LEAGUE; LATE EDITOR OF “THE SPECIALIST.”
HON. PHYSICIAN TO SHEFFIELD PUBLIC HOSPITAL FOR SKIN DISEASES,
AND TO SHEFFIELD AND SOUTH YORKSHIRE EAR AND THROAT HOSPITAL;
HON. CONSULTING PHYSICIAN TO LEEDS PUBLIC HOSPITAL FOR SKIN DISEASES;
AUTHOR OF “THE POPULAR FAITH UNVEILED,” ETC.

“‘Learn what is true in order to do what is right’ is the summing up of the
whole duty of man for all who are unable to satisfy their mental hunger with the
east wind of authority.”—Huxley.

PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR.
1887.

PREFACE.

Many imperfections, as I anticipated, have been discovered in my “Popular Faith Unveiled,” some of importance and others of little consequence; and many suggestions have been offered in all kindness by those who have done me the honour of reading my work, for consideration in case I should issue another edition. The strongest of all the arguments urged in favour of the real necessity for a second and revised edition is that that part of the subject treated upon which related more particularly to the true origin of man was not dealt with in a sufficiently exhaustive manner in the last work. This, of course, is a true charge: but it should be borne in mind that the main object of the book was to expose the real nature of the popular superstition, and not to trace out the pedigree of man; and, moreover, to have entered fully into such subjects as the evolution of mind and matter would have considerably augmented the bulk of the work, and consequently have necessitated such an increase in the price as to have made it prohibitory to a large number of thinkers, who have not too much spare cash to throw away. I therefore determined not to re-issue the work in an amplified form, but to supplement it with a number of published lectures (delivered here and in various other large towns) and articles, which should be ultimately brought out as an illustrated volume.

These lectures, etc., some of which are re-prints from journals and some of which I have myself printed in my leisure moments, I now offer to the public in book form, together with a number of figures, maps, etc., illustrative of the subjects treated upon. “Man—Whence and Whither” and “Evolution of the God-idea” are re-printed from The Agnostic; “Man’s Antiquity,” “Evolution of Mind,” “Zodiacal Mythology,” “Intellectual Progress in Europe” and “The Annals of Tacitus” from the Secular Review; and “The Special Senses” and “The Bible” from The Agnostic Annual: the remainder of the text, as before stated, has been printed by myself.

I must acknowledge with gratitude my indebtedness to Mr. John Bennett, of Prince’s Buildings, Dronfield, who has been kind enough to assist me by drawing the zodiacal signs, the Bacchanalian insignia, the oriental and Egyptian zodiacs, Amen-Ra, Mafuca, Aidanill and the negro head, the two hands, the Fuegans, the Australian (2), African and European skulls, and Boötes, Virgo, Cetus, Aquarius and Sagittarius; and also to Mr. Wm. Gill Hall, of 66 Cecil Road, Sheffield, who has kindly drawn for me the single chimpanzee, the orang, the lemur, the face of the proboscis monkey, the moor monkey, the hairy couple from Burmah, the genealogy of man, the earth’s section, and the ascent of mind. The remainder of the illustrations, with the exception of the two zincographs of the gorillas and chimpanzees (the frontispiece), have been drawn by myself; and I must trust to the generosity of my readers to overlook the amateur style of my productions, which, it is hoped, will be found sufficiently well done to serve the purpose for which they are intended. However amateur the illustrations may be in appearance, this I can truthfully say, that every sketch in the book is a faithful reproduction of the original. Some of the illustrations, however, have been derived from such gross originals that it has not been considered advisable, for many reasons, to reproduce the figures in their entirety; but wherever part of a figure has been modified by the substitution of a symbolical or other device the fact has been notified to the reader at the foot of the illustration.

In the course of the following lectures the opportunity has been seized to rectify some of the mistakes inadvertently committed in my “Popular Faith Unveiled;” but there are two errors in printing that have not yet been set right, and to which, therefore, I should now like to call attention. The first occurs on page 102, lines 9 & 10 from the bottom, where אלהי—A.L.E.I. should have been written אליה—A.L.Y (or.I.)E. (El Yah), or אלוה—A.L.OU.E. (Eloh), etc. The next occurs on page 109, line 6 from bottom, where millions should read thousands.

I have only now to frankly admit that during the last few years my views as regards the theories of ultimate causation and the future state have undergone some modification; that consequently I now regard the line of argument adopted in support of the theory of a future state of consciousness on pages 5 & 6 of my above named work as a false one and the conclusions arrived at as consequently false also; and that respecting the existence of a ruling power in the universe, I neither affirm nor deny such a condition, being contented with the knowledge that I neither know nor apparently can ever know anything at all about the matter, and recognizing, with Moleschott, the incontrovertible truth that “there is nothing in our intellect which has not entered by the gate of the senses.”

H. J. H.

Purton Lodge, Sheffield.

January 1887.

CONTENTS.

[LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.]

[EXPLANATORY NOTES.]

[ERRATA.]

[MAN—WHENCE AND WHITHER]?—Nebular Hypothesis—Formation of Earth’s crust—Fossil remains in stratified rocks—Pedigree of Man—Pleistocene and Neolithic Ages—Spontaneous evolution of life—Theories of existence and ultimate causation—Man’s future state.

[MAN’S ANTIQUITY].—Cave explorations—British and continental discoveries—Glacial periods—Tertiary upheaval and submergence in Europe—Tertiary fauna and flora—Pleistocene ice age—Palæolithic age—Tropical origin of Man—Neolithic age—Shell-mounds and remains of lake-dwellings—Bronze and Iron ages—Aryan invasion of Europe—Historic era.

[EVOLUTION OF MIND].—Universal life or motion—Protoplasmic life—Cell life—Origin of organs of sense—Embryonic development—Dawn of infantile intellect—Intellectual and emotional evolution in the individual—Corresponding development in the race—Animals reflective and emotional—Language in man and animals.

[THE SPECIAL SENSES].—Evolution of.

[EVOLUTION OF THE GOD IDEA].—Dawn of intellect—Earliest conception of Deity—Sun worship—First human tribes—Aryan mythology—Vedic system—Brahmanism—Hindu virgin and child-saviour—Boodhism—Western Aryan mythology—Zeus, Apollo, Prometheus, Hercules, Dionysos, & Yao—Central Aryan mythology—Mazdeism—Mithra—Egyptian mythology—Osiris, Isis & Horus—Amen-Ra, Mises—Chinese mythology—Semitic mythology—Akkadian and Chaldean myths—Adonis, El, Yahouh—Jewish origin—Bible gods—Confucianism—Mohammedanism—Christianism.

[ZODIACAL MYTHOLOGY].—Ancient and modern zodiacs—Precession of equinoxes—Deification of zodiacal signs and other celestial bodies—Savior-sun-god dramas—Sacred numbers & symbols—Ancient and modern phallic worship—Dionysia, Adonia & Agapæ.

[INTELLECTUAL PROGRESS IN EUROPE].—Egypto-Greek or classic era—Alexander the Great—The Alexandrian Ptolemies—Essenian revivalism—Destruction of the Serapion—Murder of Hypatia—Christian annihilation of science—Birth of Mohammed—The Koran—Saracen learning—Tenth century scare—Crusades—Averroism—Annihilation of Saracen power—Establishment of Inquisition—Discovery of America—Martin Luther—The Reformation—Copernicus—Revival of Arianism—Murder of Servetus—Index Expurgatorius—First newspaper—Murder of Bruno—Kepler’s laws—Galileo—Newton’s theory of gravitation—Discovery of Oxygen—First locomotive engine and screw steamer—Telegraphy—Christian Church opposed to progress.

[THE BIBLE]—Origin of Authorised Version—List of Bible books—Description of MSS—Ancient Hebrew language—Invention of vowel-points—Dates of earliest Hebrew and Greek MSS.

[ANNALS OF TACITUS].—Abelard—Arnold of Brescia—Wicliffe’s heresy and trials—Papal schism—Jerome of Prague—John Huss—Triple Popedom—Council of Constance—Search for old MSS—Boggio Bracciolini, Niccolo Niccoli & Lamberteschi—The forgery—Extracts from letters—Discovery of “The Annals.”

[CREATION AND FALL].—Faith and reason—Mosaic narratives—Creation opposed to science—Genesis absurd and immoral—Authorship of Pentateuch—Christianity a failure—The real trinity—Religious hypocrites—Morality not Christianity.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

• Frontispiece—Chimpanzees and gorillas.
• Lemur and face of Proboscis Monkey (after Mivart).
• Moor Monkey (after Mivart).
• Chimpanzee (after Mivart).
• Adult male Orang (after Mivart).
• Mafuca and Aidanill (after Mivart), and Swaheli Negro (after Tylor).
• Hands of Gorilla and Hammegh man (after Hartmann).
• Natives of Tierra del Fuego.
• The hairy family of Burmah.
• [Man—Whence and Whither]?
• Genealogy of Man.
• Section of Earth’s crust.
• Tertiary period in Europe.
• Eocene seas.
• Pleiocene seas.
• Pleistocene submergence during temperate inter-glacial epoch.
• Pleistocene Europe during post-glacial continental condition.
• Skeleton of man.
• Skeletons of gorilla and chimpanzee.
• Outlines of the skulls of a chimpanzee, the Neanderthal man and a modern European.
• Outlines of the skulls of the Neanderthal man, a modern Australian and the Engis man.
• Australian, African and European skulls (after Tylor and Hartmann).
• [Man’s Antiquity.]
• Evolution of mind in man.
• Amœba and Gasteropoda.
• Evolution of Mind.
• The Special Senses.
• Androgynous Brahm.
• Isis, Horus and fish.
• Indranee and Indra; and Lakshmi and Vishnu.
• Devaki and Kristna: and Parvati and Siva.
• Amen-Ra (after Drummond).
• Crucifixion of Kristna; Crux Ansata; Assyrian virgin Ishtar; Cyprian virgin and child; Isis and Horus.
• [Evolution of the God Idea.]
• Zodiacal Signs, showing the precession of the equinoxes.
• Bacchanalian insignia.
• Oriental Zodiac (after Sir Wm. Jones).
• Egyptian Zodiac (after Sir Wm. Drummond).
• Northern signs and extra-zodiacal constellations.
• Southern signs and extra-zodiacal constellations.
• Zodiacal line, or Ecliptic, showing the precession of the equinoxes.
• Boötes, Adam, Joseph—Virgo, Eve, Mary—Cetus, Blasphemy.
• Aquarius, John Baptist, Peter—Sagittarius, Joseph, Philip.
• God incarnate with man.
• Phallic amulet and phallic lamp.
• Votive offerings to god Priapus.
• Phallic crux ansata and amulet.
• [Zodiacal Mythology.]
• Vedic and Hindu Earths.
• Greek Earth, and Pomponius Mela’s cosmography.
• Eighth and tenth century maps.
• Fourteenth century maps.
• Egyptian and Ptolemaic planetary system.
• Planetary systems of Tycho Brahe and Copernicus.
• The Iron Virgin—inside view.
• Ditto—outside view.
• [Intellectual Progress in Europe.]
• Sixth century MS. of Luke xx. 9, 10.
• Fragmentary MS. from John’s gospel.
• [The Bible.]

EXPLANATORY NOTES.

The illustration of Brahm, the androgynous creator of the Hindus, “is a copy of an original drawing made by a learned Hindu pundit for Wm. Simpson, Esq., of London, whilst he was in India studying its mythology. It represents Brahm supreme, who in the act of creation made himself double, i.e., male and female. In the original the central part of the figure is occupied by the triad and the unit, but far too grossly shown for reproduction here. They are replaced by the Crux Ansata Arddha Nari.” (Inman’s “Ancient Faiths.”)

The illustration of the god Siva, nursed by his virgin-wife-mother, Parvati, requires some explanation. The right hand of the virgin makes the symbol of the yoni (female principle) with the forefinger and thumb, the rest of the fingers typifying the triad. In the palm and on the navel is a lozenge, emblematic of woman. In the infant’s hand is one of the many emblems of the linga (male principle), whilst under his feet a lotus supports his body. The monkey is emblematic of the carnal desire. The relationship existing between the mother and child was of a twofold nature. The deities of the ancients were usually androgynous, and thus each of the members of the Hindu triad possessed two parts, a male half and a female half, which he inherited from his androgynous parent Brahm, whose female principle brought forth the three essences, Brahma, Vishnu and Siva. Thus each god became the husband as well as the son of the divine female principle, just as Virgo of the zodiac was both mother and wife of the sun-god of the annual revolution, mother at his birth at the winter solstice and wife at his ascension at the summer solstice. The female part or wife-mother of Siva was the virgin goddess Parvati; of Vishnu, Lakshmi; of Krishna, Devaki; of Indra, Indranee; of Horus, Isis; etc.

The illustration of the amulet of the double Crux Ansata, represents the female principle at the top in the shape of a ring (which has the same meaning as the winged disc, cup, and shell, or Concha Veneris); the male principle in full vigour on the right side in the shape of a cross (male organ of generation in the original); the unprolific male principle of infancy on the underneath side, also in the shape of a cross (infantine male organ in the original); and the act of generation on the left side, in the shape of a clenched hand, with the thumb bent across the back of the first finger.

The illustration of god incarnate with man represents the saviour of the world—ΣΩΤΗΡ ΚΟΣΜΟΥSÔTÊR KOSMOU—as a cross, or phallic symbol (an erect male organ in the original), which forms the beak on the head of a cock, the symbol of the rising sun, the whole resting on the shoulders of a man, symbolical of the incarnation of god and man.

The illustration of the amulet in Mr. Townley’s museum represents the female principle at the top, in the form of a circle, under which is the victorious sun-god of the vernal equinox, in the shape of a bull’s head with a cross or phallic symbol (erect male organ in the original) on either side of the mouth, the whole being emblematic of the sexual union of the powers of heaven and earth, and the consequent regeneration of nature at the spring equinox.

Mafuca, whose portrait is given in the following pages, was a female ape from the Loango coast, placed in the Dresden Zoological Gardens. Hartmann, in his “Anthropoid Apes,” describes her as being “120 cm. in height, reminding us in many respects of the gorilla. The face was prognathous; the ears were comparatively small, placed high on the skull, and projecting outwards; the supra-orbital arch was strongly developed; the end of the nose was broad; and there were rolls of fat on the cheeks.” K. Th. von Siebold also classed her as a gorilla; but Bolau and A. B. Meyer opposed this view; while Bischoff, judging by the structure of the brain, thought she was a chimpanzee. Now it is pretty generally believed that she was either a cross between the gorilla and the chimpanzee, or else a member of a distinct species of anthropoids intermediate between the gorilla and the chimpanzee. In Hartmann’s account of Mafuca we read that she was “a remarkable creature, not only in her external habits, but in her disposition.... She hardly obeyed anyone except Schöpf, the director of the gardens, and when in a good humour she would sit on his knee and put her muscular arms round his neck with a caressing gesture.... Mafuca was able to use a spoon, although somewhat awkwardly; and she could pour from larger vessels into smaller ones without spilling the liquor. She took tea and cocoa in the morning and evening, and a mixed diet between whiles, such as fruit, sweetmeats, red wine and water, and sugar.... If she was left alone for any time she tried to open the lock of her cage without having the key, and she once succeeded in doing so. On that occasion she stole the key, which was hanging on the wall, hid it in her axilla [arm-pit], and crept quietly back to her cage. With the key she easily opened the lock; and she also knew how to use a gimlet. She would draw off the keeper’s boots, scramble up to some place out of reach with them, and throw them at his head when asked for them. She could wring out wet cloths, and blow her nose with a handkerchief. When her illness began, she became apathetic, and looked about with a vacant, unobservant stare. Just before her death, from consumption, she put her arms round Schöpf’s neck when he came to visit her, looked at him placidly, kissed him three times, stretched out her hand to him, and died.” It may be added to this that Mafuca exhibited the greatest decorum and modesty in the performance of all her daily and other natural functions.

Aidanill, the hairless Australian, is a good specimen of a low type of human being; having a superciliary prominence greater than is usually found amongst races of men, with a remarkably small cranial capacity and almost entire absence of frontal development. The skull, in fact, differs but little from that of Mafuca, given beneath it; and its owner belonged to those races described on p. 14 of “Evolution of Mind.”

The Swaheli Negro is a good specimen of the dolichocephalic prognathous type of head, considerably higher in intellectual capacity than that of Aidanill.

The hands are intended to illustrate the close resemblance between the hand of a gorilla and that of a man belonging to the Hammeghs of the Nubian Soudan. It will be observed that while the fingers of the gorilla are webbed, the second and third fingers of the man are slightly webbed and his thumb and first finger very considerably webbed.

ERRATA.

MAN—WHENCE AND WHITHER?—Page 12, line 11 from top, for “Palæolithic” read “Pleistocene;” and line 12 from top, for “on the earth” read “in Europe, for the human remains found in France clearly testify to the fact; and even in America his antiquity must be very great indeed,” etc.

EVOLUTION OF MIND—Page 1, line 6 from top, for “Protamnia” read “Protista.”

EVOLUTION OF THE GOD IDEA—Page 25, line 17 from top, for Σευς read Ζευς.

INTELLECTUAL PROGRESS IN EUROPE—Page 17, line 9 from top and line 7 from bottom for “Purgatorious” read “Expurgatorious.”

ANNALS OF TACITUS—Page 15, line 13 from top, for “that religion” read “that the religion.”

CREATION AND FALL—Page 6, last line, and page 7, last line but one, for “mammals” read “placental mammals.”

LEMUR—Half Ape—(After Mivart)

FACE OF PROBOSCIS MONKEY
(After Mivart)

THE MOOR MONKEY
(After Mivart)

CHIMPANZEE (Troglodytes)
(After Mivart)

ADULT MALE ORANG
(After Mivart)

SWAHELI NEGRO (After Tyler) AIDANILL. HAIRLESS AUSTRALIAN. (After Hartmann)

MAFUCA
The Anthropoid Ape at Dresden
(After Hartmann)

Hand of a very aged male gorilla.
(After Hartmann)

Hand of a Hammegh man from Roseres, Blue Nile.
(After Hartmann)

NATIVES OF TIERRA DEL FUEGO.

Moung-Phoset The Son Mahphoon The Mother
THE HAIRY FAMILY OF BURMAH
Exhibited at the Piccadilly Hall London in 1886

MAN: WHENCE AND WHITHER?

The fables of the creation of nature and man by various fantastic and ridiculous means, which have, for thousands of years, found favour with the unthinking multitudes inhabiting the earth, and which even now are, one or other, firmly believed by the large majority of both the Eastern and Western populations, must, ere long, gradually give way to the truer and grander theory of Evolution, resulting from the study of the natural sciences. Priests, monks, and other interested people, backed up by the enormous wealth which has accumulated to the various religious creeds during the past centuries of darkness, ignorance, and gross credulity, will, no doubt, oppose all their tremendous forces against the new philosophy, thus, for a while, delaying the inevitable result. But this condition of things cannot last long. Education is doing, and will continue to do, its work, until, at length, falsehood and slavery will give place to truth and liberty.

In order to discover the origin of man, it is necessary to carry the mind back to a very remote period, and observe the mode of development of our planetary system; for, according to the theory of Evolution, there were no starting points for particular forms in nature, the whole universe consisting of one continuous unfolding of phenomena.

The modern theory of the mode of development of our earth, as also of all other planets and suns, is the one known as the “Nebular Hypothesis,” which is the prelude to the great theory of Evolution, and which teaches us that the earth, the sun, the moon, the planets, and all the heavenly host are the effects or results of the condensation of a nebulous vapour, which took place many millions of years ago, after having been diffused for an incalculable period of time throughout the illimitable expanse of space. The cause of this nebulous vapour, or attenuated matter, is unknown to us, and will probably ever remain enshrouded in the profound mystery which at present envelopes it. Beyond this limit all is mere speculation or hypothesis; and the Agnostic philosopher and the man of science, humbly acknowledging their complete inability to solve this mighty problem of ultimate causation, are content to leave further speculation in this direction to metaphysicians and poets.

During many long ages this process of condensation of the nebulous vapour steadily continued, being controlled by the laws of gravitation and transformation, until, at length, a number of rotating spherical nebular masses were formed, in a state of high heat from the shock of their recently-united atoms, which spheres gradually cooled by radiation, consequently contracting and becoming possessed of a more rapid rotary motion, giving off from their equatorial regions large rings of vapour, which, in their turn, condensed and, under the influence of the same two laws, formed separate spheres for themselves. This is the mode by which our planetary system was formed, as taught by Laplace and accepted by the scientists of to-day.

The earth, then, in common with other planets, may be said to have passed from the condition of a gaseous to a highly-heated fluid mass, and to have gradually become plastic, and moulded by revolution on its own axis to its present shape—i.e., an oblate spheroid, or globe, flatter at the poles than at the equator, with a polar diameter about twenty-six miles shorter than the equatorial diameter. This is the shape that all plastic bodies which rotate on their axes must assume, as we are clearly taught by mathematics.

Assuming, then, that the earth was in a state of incandescence when it began to take a definite form, we shall at once see that the denser materials composing it would gravitate towards the centre, forming a semi-plastic mass surrounded by an envelope of gases and watery vapour. The gases would be quickly disposed of in various chemical combinations, and the watery vapour would be condensed and deposited in depressions on the surface of the central mass as soon as it had become cooled sufficiently. The outer crust of this central, semi-solid mass was soon converted, under the intense heat, into a hard, granite-like rock, which was continually subject to sudden upheavals, resulting partly from the violent escape of gases, and partly from water passing through fissures on the surface to the heated interior and giving rise to steam of great expansive power. In this manner great inequalities of the surface were, no doubt, produced, whose rugged edges, after the lapse of a vast period of time, were gradually softened down by the subsequent action upon them of air and water. This first rock formation is termed by geologists the Plutonic (from Pluto, monarch of hell), on account of its being the result of intense heat, and not, as is the case with all other rock formations, laid down in layers by water. Whether the Plutonic rock forms a solid centre to our earth is matter of uncertainty; but all are agreed that the internal heat of our planet, whether caused by the friction of the particles of a solid substance or by a molten fluid, is still, even in these later times, intense. In boring through the earth’s crust, the average increase in temperature for every fifty feet of descent, after the first hundred feet from the surface, is one degree Fahr., which would give us, at a depth of 125 miles, sufficient heat to melt most of the rocks. This intense internal heat has generated, in times long gone by, enormous forces, by which rocks of all ages have been raised and depressed, twisted and distorted, broken and forced out of position, and forcibly compressed, so as to eventually cause most important changes of surface level.

The next class of rock-formation is totally different from the Plutonic, or unstratified series, in that it is the result of the wear and tear of the surface when acted upon by air and water, and is laid down, in the first instance, by water, as sediment. Water, in the forms of seas, rivers, rain, and ice, has been the chief agent in the arrangement of all the stratified rocks, the determination of the earth’s contour, the direction of valleys, and, in fact, the regulation of the whole physical geography of the visible portion of the earth. With the help of this mighty agent, so soon as the earth had become sufficiently cool to permit condensation to take place in its vapoury envelope, the ceaseless wear and tear of the Plutonic—and, subsequently, of all other—rocks, which has accumulated so vast a mass of material, commenced. Large volumes of water were gradually deposited, without intermission, until permanent seas and rivers had become established, and the new process of stratification, which was henceforth destined to shape the crust of the earth and to provide the conditions of life, commenced to operate. This action is taking place daily in rivers and seas, as we may observe at any time. On the tops of mountains the same action is in operation, though under different conditions, snow and ice splitting fragments from the rocks to be borne away as grit into the valleys by impetuous torrents and deposited in other places. Within the Polar circles ice on a grander scale is levelling down the land; glaciers, covering thousands of square miles, are slowly sliding down the valleys, grinding their surfaces still deeper—forming sands, clays, and gravels, and forcing these down to the sea-shore; and icebergs, many miles in circumference, are carried by currents along coasts and against cliffs like huge ploughs, completely altering the face of the rocks beneath. This wear and tear results in the formation of immense quantities of detritus, which is deposited in layers at the bottom of seas and rivers, and consolidated by pressure, being frequently assisted by lime, iron, or silica as a cement. The coarser-textured rock has been laid down in rapidly-moving, shallow water; and the finer-textured in still, deep water. Thus, through many long ages—probably millions of years—the surface of the earth underwent continual change from the constant deposition of stratified rock, each layer of which completely buried beneath it the various life forms of the previous period, which circumstance enables us to ascribe to the various members of the animal and vegetable kingdoms particular geological periods; for fossilised remains of animals and vegetables have been unearthed in the different layers of the stratified rocks, conclusively proving their existence on the earth at those periods.

In the Plutonic or unstratified rock-formation period there was, of course, no life upon the earth, the conditions necessary for such development not being present; but in the very earliest of the stratified formations we find evidence of the dawn of marine life, both vegetable and animal. Geologists have divided the stratified rock into three chief divisions, the Palæozoic (ancient life), or Primary; the Mesozoic (middle life), or Secondary; and the Kainozoic (latest life), or Tertiary. Each of these, again, has been subdivided into smaller sections, according to the particular kind of deposit met with, the particular places where the best examples are to be found, or the particular life-forms existing. The Primary, the depth of which is unknown, is subdivided into seven periods—viz.:—

Laurentian, consisting of highly metamorphosed (that is, changed in appearance from the original stratified rock character, owing to its proximity to the molten Plutonic rock) limestone, containing fossil remains of the Foraminifera, some of the first living organisms.

Huronian, consisting of less highly metamorphosed sandstone, limestone, etc., and containing fossil remains of lowly-organised molluscs (soft-bodied organisms).

Cambrian, consisting of slates, sandstones, and conglomerates, and containing fossil remains of sponges, sea-weeds, star-fishes, sea-lilies, lowly shell-fish, marine worms, and the first land plants.

Silurian, consisting of slates, limestones, etc., and containing fossil remains of corals, chambered spiral shell-fish, crabs, sea-worms, and bony plates and scales of a low form of fish.

Devonian, consisting of old red sandstone, shales, and coralline limestone, and containing fossil land plants, fishes, belonging to shark, ray, and sturgeon families, and first fossil insect.

Carboniferous, consisting of mountain limestone, coal, sandstone, ironstone, clays, etc., and containing fossil scorpions, beetles, and amphibians.

Permian, consisting of new red sandstone, marls, magnesian limestones, etc., and containing fossils of true reptiles.

The Secondary division is subdivided into three periods, viz.:—

Triassic, consisting of sandstone, limestone, and clays, and containing fossils of gigantic reptiles and first mammals (small marsupials).

Jurassic, or Oölitic, consisting of limestones, coral rags, clays, and marls, and containing fossils of bird-reptiles and several species of marsupials.

Cretaceous, consisting of clays, sands, soft limestone, and lignites, and containing fossils of new bird-reptiles.

The Tertiary division is subdivided into four periods—viz.:—

Eocene (dawn of recent life), consisting of sandstone, limestone, sands, clays, marls, coral rags, and lignites, and containing fossil equine forms, birds, reptiles, bats, and marsupials.

Meiocene (less recent life), consisting of arctic coal, limestone, sands, clays, and lignites, and containing fossil apes and marsupials.

Pleiocene (more recent life), the white and red crags of Britain, containing fossil apes, bears, and hyenas.

Pleistocene (most recent life), consisting of glacial accumulations of all kinds of earths, and containing fossil remains of apes and men, and implements of stone, bone, and horn, and later still of remains of lake-dwellings, shell-mounds, etc.

These different layers of stratified rocks have not always kept their proper positions with regard to each other in the order they were originally laid down; but, owing to volcanic eruption, have frequently intruded upon each other, so that, at first sight, it would sometimes appear as though the regular order of deposition had not been adhered to; but that this is not so has been made apparent by careful investigation over large areas. The depth of the Secondary and Tertiary is from twenty to twenty-five miles. We see, therefore, that the first life-forms made their appearance as marine organisms in the Laurentian, or first stratified rock period; but whether the animal or the vegetable form first appeared, or whether both were developed from one primordial organism, it is impossible at present to say. In each successive layer of rock we meet with fossil remains of animal and vegetable life, which steadily develop into more highly organised forms, through the different periods, until, at last, they assume the exquisite phases we now behold around us. The vegetable kingdom was the first to exist upon the land, the first land-plant being found in the fossil state in the Cambrian layer, at the same time that marine animal life was assuming the forms of worms, shell-fish, and star-fishes. In the Silurian period the first vertebrate animals made their appearance in the form of lowly-organised fishes, from which, in the Carboniferous age, developed amphibious creatures, the first breathing animals, living both in and out of water, and the progenitors of the large kingdom of land animals, including man.

Now, if we take the pedigree of man, as arranged by Darwin and Haeckel, and compare it with this geological tree, we shall see how perfectly the sister sciences of Paleontology and Biology corroborate each other. The first form of life, says Haeckel, was the Moneron, a structureless albuminous atom of bioplasm, not even possessing the structure of a mere cell. We place this, which belongs to the primitive order Protozoa, in the Laurentian period, where we are told by geologists that fossil foraminifera have been found. This promordial organism gradually developed into single nucleated cells, called Amœbæ, and these again into masses of nucleated cells, called Synamœbæ. These simple and multiple cell organisms we place in the next period, Huronian, in the strata of which geologists tell us have been found fossil remains of lowly organised molluscs, or soft-bodied animals. Ciliata are the next forms of life, which consist of Synamœbæ, covered with vibratile cilia. These gradually developed a mouth, becoming Gastrœada, and afterwards Turbellaria, a low form of worm (Vermes), with a mouth and alimentary canal; and are placed in the Cambrian period, in which stratum have been found remains of this kind of life. The ascent continues through the transition stage of Scolecida to Himatega, or sack-worms, with their rudimentary spinal cords; from which gradually evolved Acrania, or the first vertebrate animals, without skulls, brains, central heart, jaws, or limbs; but with a true vertebral cord. This peculiar little animal was a lancet-shaped marine worm, akin to the lancelet or amphioxus of to-day. From these developed Monorrhini, or vertebrate hybrid worms and fishes, with skull, brain, and central heart, but no sympathetic system, jaws, or limbs, and with a single nasal cavity (lampreys). These three forms are placed in the Silurian period, in which stratum have been found fossilised bony plates and scales of fishes and Annelides, or sea-worms.

The next forms of life to be developed, from the Monorrhini, were the Selachii (Amphirrhini), or true fishes, of the shark family, with two nasal cavities, swim-bladder, two pairs of fins, and jaws. From these evolved the Ganoidei, and thence all osseous fishes; and Dipnoi (mud fish), or hybrid fishes and amphibians, with both gills and lungs. These little animals live during winter in water, when they breathe air dissolved in water through their gills; and during the summer in mud, when they breathe with their lungs. Both these are placed in the Devonian period, in which have been found fossil sharks, etc. The next forms are Sozobranchii, or amphibians with persistent gills, from which evolved Urodela, or amphibians with transitory gills, but persistent tails, and legs; allied to the salamander. These are placed in the Carboniferous period, in which have been found fossilised amphibians. We next get Protamnia, or hybrid salamanders and lizards (frogs and toads), with no gills or tails, but possessing an amnion and cloaca. These represent the parent forms of the three great higher branches of vertebrates—Reptilia, Aves (which evolved from reptiles), and Mammalia, and are placed in the Permian period, in which have been found fossilised amphibians and true reptiles. Monotremata (Promammalia) are the next forms developed in our pedigree, the parent forms of the class Mammalia; with cloaca, amnion, and marsupial bones; which are placed in the Triassic period; and from which evolved Marsupialia, mammals with amnion and marsupial bones, but no cloaca; allied to the kangaroo and opossum of to-day. This species we place in the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. From Marsupialia developed the large kingdom of Placentalia, which lose the marsupial bones and cloaca, and acquire a placenta, and which we divide into three main branches, according to the particular placental formation. The first division we call Villiplacentalia (tufty placenta), from which evolved Edentata (sloth, ant-eaters, and tertiary monsters), Cetacea (marine placental mammals, such as whale, dolphin, porpoise, and sea-cow), and Ungulata (horse, cow, pig, rhinoceros, and hippopotamus). The second division we term Zenoplacentalia (ring-like placenta), the earliest forms of which were Carnaria, or flesh-eaters, from which came Carnivora, or land beasts of prey (cats, dogs, bears, etc.), and Pinnipedia, or marine beasts of prey (seal and walrus). The third division we name Discoplacentalia (discoid placenta); and here we find, as the first development, the Prosimiæ, or tailed lemurs, quadrupeds with claws, and having the appearance of hybrid cats and monkeys. All these are placed in the Eocene period, in which stratum geologists have found fossilised placentals.

From the discoplacental-mammal Prosimiæ evolved the following species—viz., Prosimiæ of Madagascar (lemurs of to-day), with four feet and claws; Cheiroptera (bats); Rodentia (squirrels, mice, porcupines, hares); Insectivora (moles, shrew-mice, and hedgehogs); and Simiæ, or quadruped monkeys, with two feet, two hands, nails, and tails. We divide Simiæ into two classes, the Platyrrhini, or New World apes, with thirty-six teeth, tails, no cheek-pouches or callosities, and nasal cavities pointing outwards and divided by a thick septum (from which came the American howlers, weepers, capuchins, and squirrel-monkeys); and the Catarrhini (Menocerca), or Old World apes, with thirty-two teeth (like man), tails, cheek-pouches, callosities, and nasal cavities pointing downwards and divided by a thin septum (like man). These are placed in the Meiocene period, in which have been discovered the first fossil apes. From the Catarrhini developed the tailed baboons and macaques, with thirty-two teeth, cheek-pouches, and callosities; and the Anthropoidæ, with thirty-two teeth, but no tails, cheek-pouches, or callosities. These were evolved during the Pleiocene period. From the anthropoid (man-like) apes we get three distinct divisions—viz., the gibbon and orang families, with no tails or cheek-pouches, walking partly on hind legs, and wandering in companies in India; the chimpanzee and gorilla families of Africa, with no tails or cheek-pouches, no articulate speech, walking on hind legs only, living in companies in caves, and carrying their babes in their arms; and Alali, or ape-like men, commonly called the “missing links,” who were probably developed, during the Pleiocene period, in Lemuria, a submerged continent which formerly occupied the position of the Indian Ocean; or in the districts of the Nile and Ganges.

These primitive ape-like men were the connecting links between men and the apes, and are divided into two main branches—viz., woolly-haired Alali, who migrated from Lemuria, west and south; and straight-haired Alali, who migrated from Lemuria, north, east, and south. Both these branches had skulls of the same character as those of the chimpanzee and gorilla—that is, they were dolichocephalic (long-headed) prognathous (prominent jaws), and also, like their ape brethren, were troglodytes, or cave-dwellers. From the woolly-haired Alali evolved the Papuans of New Guinea and Tasmania, and the Hottentots of Africa, whose descendants of to-day are but little removed in brain development from the higher apes. They are dolichocephalic prognathous savages, with black, hairy skins, long arms, and short, thin legs, with ill-developed calves; are semi-erect, walk on hind legs, and have no true articulate speech. A higher development of the woolly-haired Alali is the Negro, and higher still the Caffre, both of whom are dolichocephalic prognathous savages, with black, semi-hairy skins, and imperfect articulation. From the straight-haired Alali are derived the Australian natives and the large family of Malays or Polynesians. The Australians migrated south, and were dolichocephalic prognathous savages, with smooth, dirty brown skins, and straight black hair. The lowest tribes of the present day have no true articulate speech. The Polynesians migrated north and east, and were dolichocephalic prognathous troglodytes (as the gorilla and chimpanzee), with clear, smooth brown skins, and true articulate speech. This branch split up into two large families, the Mongolian or Turanian, and the Caucasian or Iranian. The former covered Northern and Eastern Asia, Polynesia, and America, and were originally brachycephalic (broad-headed) prognathous men. They subdivided into two distinct species, the Mongols of China, Japan, Lapland, Finland, and Hungary, who are brachycephalic, but not prognathous, with smooth, brownish yellow skin, and straight black hair; and the Mongols of America, who are mesocephalic (round-headed), but not prognathous, with smooth red skins and straight black hair. The Caucasian family covered Western Asia and most of Europe, being mesocephalic prognathous troglodytes (afterwards agriculturalists) with smooth dark skins and long straight hair; and subdivided into two branches, the Semitic, of Arabia and Syria, and the Aryan or Indo-European; both of whom are mesocephalic, but not prognathous.

It is true that, so far, no fossil remains of Alali have been found, with the exception of the Neanderthal skull; but it is equally true that they may soon be discovered. It is only comparatively recently that the other species have been found fossilised; and it must be recollected that only a very small portion of the earth’s crust has yet been explored, and that not the most likely for finding. No attempts have been yet made to unearth the life-remains in the neighbourhood of the Indian Ocean, where it is believed man first evolved from his ape-like ancestors. It does not, however, seem to me to be essentially necessary that the “missing link” be found in order to substantiate the Evolution theory. There is so little difference between the higher anthropoid apes and man, compared with the enormous differences observed between the earlier forms of life and the ape species, that the sequence and continuity appear now conclusively settled to any reasonable observer. Comparative anatomists and embryologists both declare in favour of the theory of development of Darwin and Haeckel. It is a fact beyond dispute that every human being commences his individual existence as a tiny piece of structureless bioplasm, from which condition he passes through the Amœba stage to the Synamœba, and thence in regular order through each successive stage of development marked in the genealogy given above, becoming worm, fish, and mammal in turn, and finally being born into the world as a member of the human family. Each of these lower forms also passes through all the species preceding it in precisely the same manner. This is one of the strongest arguments in favour of Evolution. It is said that the power of speech possessed by man opposes a strong barrier to the theory; but it has been shown clearly that other animals besides man can use articulate sounds, which convey meanings to each other. Monkeys certainly understand each other’s chattering, and it is highly probable that birds also understand each other’s cries. It is true that the sounds made by animals are chiefly monosyllabic; but philologists now tell us that the languages spoken by primitive races of men are compounded of quite simple elements, perfectly within the grasp of an ape’s voice. Travellers, whose veracity and ability cannot be impugned, have described long conferences held by monkeys, where one individual addressed the assembly at great length, fixing the attention of all upon himself, and quelling every disturbance by a loud and harsh cry, which was at once recognised and obeyed by the multitude. Is it credible that this should be purposeless? Is it not actually the exercise of speech?

Is it not possible—nay, even extremely probable—that, under the irresistible pressure of civilised man, his immediate precursor may have become extinct? All the human races that now tend to bridge the interval between the highest man and the highest ape are fast becoming extinct under this very pressure. The gulf widens, and will widen. The Caribs and Tasmanians have passed away, while the Australians, New Zealanders, aboriginal Americans, Eskimo, and others, are fast following in their wake, and this all in a comparatively short space of time. There is undoubtedly now a far greater physical and mental interval between the Hottentot woman and such men as Gladstone and Darwin than between the Hottentot and an ape. It is a fact beyond dispute that man was not in such a high state of development ages gone by as at present. The earliest traces of man exhibit him to us in the Palæolithic, or old stone, age, as wild and living in caves, using only the rudest stone implements with which to battle with the ferocious monsters around him. His jaw was then prognathous, like the ape, and his body large and powerful.

In the limestone caverns of France have been discovered the fossil remains of men who inhabited caves and belonged to the Palæolithic, or early Pleistocene, period. Together with these troglodytes, or cave-dwellers, were rough, unpolished stone implements and weapons, denoting a low state of civilisation. Other caves, in later strata, give us lighter stone weapons, of better finish, and occasionally horn dart-points, such as would be used for catching smaller game. Numbers of skin-scrapers also were found, suggesting the idea that the people used the hides of animals for clothing, instead of going naked, as their ancestors. The hairy character of the body would be probably giving place to a finer, smoother, and more delicate outer skin, which would necessitate clothing of some kind. Still later we find implements altogether of flint, lancet-shaped, admirably-proportioned, and of three sizes, adapted for arrow, javeline, and lance points respectively, and designed to be fitted to wooden and bone shafts. After these appear arrows and darts of deer’s horn and bone, and stone and flint tools, which were used for making these arrows. We also find such implements as bone awls and needles for piercing and sewing skins, arrow-heads furnished with barbs on each side, and harpoons barbed on one side only.

Now was man’s intellect fairly on the swing; but still he was, as yet, only in the Palæolithic period, for not one polished implement nor fragment of pottery is found in their stations. They were surrounded by ferocious carnivora, which sometimes fell victims to their weapons. The mammoth still tenanted the valleys, and the reindeer was the common article of food. They were hunters, possessed of the rudest modes of existence, and with but little of what is now called civilisation.

In Britain the troglodyte man was contemporary with the mammoth, rhinoceros, lion, and hyena, none of which existed in the later Pleistocene era; but there have been no perfect skeletons found here like those in France. Human bones, however, have been discovered in various deposits, together with the skeletons of long-extinct animals. The best British human fossil is the portion of an upper jaw containing four teeth, from Kent’s Cavern. Hermetically sealed in stalagmite, deposited on the floor of the cavern by water dropping from the roof, this jaw lay below the remains of extinct mammals; while beneath all were bone and stone implements of human workmanship, equally firmly fixed in a natural limestone cement. Geology fixes the date of this troglodyte at the early Pleistocene period, and it is beyond doubt that man existed at this remote period, or even earlier, in Europe, for the human remains found in France clearly testify to the fact; and even in America his antiquity must be very great indeed, for a human skull was found in the delta of the Mississippi beneath four different layers of forest growth, which must have formed part of a living human being 50,000 years since. The celebrated Neanderthal skull, of which so much has been heard, certainly belongs to the mammoth age, if not earlier; and, if it represent a race, and not merely an individual, that race would lie in a position intermediate between the lowest man and the highest ape. It may only represent a man of peculiar formation, as we often see men in the present day deformed or of eccentric build; and, therefore, we cannot look upon it positively as the “missing link.” One other similar find, however, would for ever settle the question, and proclaim to the world that the “missing link” was, at last, found. In capacity, the cranium is human, while the superciliary arches and the brow are distinctly ape-like. Professor Huxley sums up his examination of this skull with the remark that “the Neanderthal skull is, of human remains, that which presents the most marked and definite characters of a lower type.”

Following the Palæolithic era, or rude stone age, is the Neolithic, or new stone, age; and now we find man using polished weapons, making pottery, using fire to warm himself with, and developing social manners. Instead of living in caves, he lived in lake dwellings, with others of his species, and gradually developed agricultural tastes. This metamorphosis, we know from the fossil remains found deposited in various strata, occupied a long period of time, probably thousands of years; and even then we are left thousands of years before the historical era, which followed the bronze and iron ages. Compare these men with those who lived in the Grecian and Egyptian eras, and again compare these latter with ourselves, and the record is one of trial and failure through long ages, and of experiment crowned at last by attainment. Has not the invention of the steam-engine alone been a means of extending man’s dominion in a marvellous manner? Think what has been achieved through electricity! There has, undoubtedly, been a continued struggle from barbarism to civilisation, and the little we know of the early history of man tells us that he lived the life of a wild beast, leaving no impression on the earth save one of the victims of his well-aimed stone or flint-pointed spear.

So much for the “missing link.” There is one other point to be settled before we have completed the sequence of evolution, which commences with the condensation of the nebulous vapour and terminates with the development of man; and that is the question of how life originated. We have found that the first dawn of life was in the form of a simple speck of bioplasm, void of any structure; and that this primordial germ, which we call a Moneron, was developed in the earliest period of deposition of stratified rock at the bottom of the sea, and is now being constantly developed as of old. Now, if the theory of evolution be not mere talk, this primordial germ must have been spontaneously evolved from inanimate matter, for the theory allows of no break, being a gradual unfolding of phenomena. We are told that there is no experience in nature of such a development. Perhaps so; but that is no argument against it. There is no experience in nature of any special creation either; so why fly to this alternative, which is the only one presented to us, instead of adopting the theory which agrees so harmoniously with the whole evolutionary process? Why make this abrupt break in the chain of sequence? Does it not annihilate completely the whole theory of evolution? It is not more wonderful that life should be evolved from inanimate nature than that man should be evolved from a structureless bioplasm. The continuity of evolution once broken, why may it not be broken again and again?

If we are to accept the theory of evolution, we are bound to admit that animate was evolved from inanimate matter. And the difficulty of this admission is not, after all, so great as appears at first sight; for who is to say whether such a condition really exists as inanimate matter? It is a fact that every particle of matter in nature is in a state of active motion; every molecule and atom is constantly active. And why is this not life as much as the animal or vegetable, though in a modified degree of development? Evolution, if it mean anything, should admit this; and I will show you that it does not admit it only, but absolutely declares that it is so. In the first place, it must be recollected that Balfour Stewart, and all other physical and chemical scientists, declare that every thing in nature is composed of molecules and atoms. The molecules are the smallest quantities into which any individual body or substance can be divided without losing its individuality. For instance, table-salt, or chloride of sodium, can be divided and subdivided, until you get to the limit of subdivision, which is a molecule composed of chlorine and sodium in chemical combination. Further subdivision annihilates its individuality as salt, and leaves us with the two elementary chemical atoms, chlorine and sodium, existing independently of each other. These atoms are incapable of further subdivision. In the same manner, the whole matter of the universe may be subdivided into molecules, which consist of atoms of some two or more of about sixty-seven chemical elements in various combinations. These atoms are the smallest separate particles of masses of matter, and are separated from each other by what is termed hypothetical ether—that is, the fluid ether we believe to be pervading every portion of space. Each atom possesses an inherent sum of force, or energy. The well-established and universally-admitted theory of chemical affinity teaches us that these atoms are capable of attracting and repelling each other, and, therefore, also teaches us, by implication, that they are possessed with definite inclinations, follow these sensations or impulses, and have also the will and ability to move to and from one another. This we are clearly taught by chemistry. Thus every atom in the universe possesses sensation and will, pleasure and displeasure, desire and loathing, attraction and repulsion; and its mass is, moreover, indestructible and unchangeable, and its energy eternal, as we are again taught by the theory of conservation of energy and matter. These sentient atoms of universal matter, whose aggregate energy is the great animating spirit of the universe, have the power of uniting together in various chemical combinations to form molecules, or chemical unities, developing fresh properties in the process, and forming the lowest conceivable division of compound material substances, some atoms uniting to build up crystals and other inorganic masses, and others to develop the various organic or life forms. The atoms of the ultimate molecules of both organic and inorganic bodies are identically the same. It depends entirely upon what particular combination of atoms takes place whether an organic or inorganic form is developed. The primordial life-form we have found to be simple homogeneous plasm, consisting of molecules, each of which is composed of atoms of five elements—carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, and sulphur, differing not one iota from the molecules of inorganic bodies, except that it acquires the special power of reproduction, by virtue of the peculiar combination of its atoms, which power is wanting in the inorganic world, whose molecules are composed of similar atoms, but in different combinations. This is the only difference between the organic, or life, world, and the inorganic, or lifeless, world—life being, as compared with unlife, but the power of reproduction. As examples of this, we may take crystals, the most perfect development of inorganic nature, and the moneron, the least perfect development of organic nature; and the difference between them is almost nil, certainly less than between the parents and offspring in many life-forms. The crystal molecules are composed of elementary chemical atoms, as are the moneron molecules; but the former grow by particles being deposited on particles externally, while the latter grow by particles penetrating from without, or being absorbed into the interior and becoming assimilated by the plasm, fresh molecules being evolved in the process, this special power of reproduction being generated by the peculiar combination of the atoms. This argument appears to me to be logically and scientifically sound, and disposes altogether of the notion of a break of continuity between the living and the unliving worlds, which is such a formidable difficulty to many minds. The plasm thus formed by the aggregation of life molecules gradually differentiates into protoplasm and nucleus, which together form a simple cell; and this cell partakes, by heredity, of the nature and properties of its parent form, and also, by adaptation to different circumstances surrounding its existence, acquires fresh properties, which, together with the inherited properties, it transmits to its progeny, thus evolving a still more complex form, inheriting the acquired and inherited properties of its parent, and again acquiring fresh properties; and so on, ad infinitum, through the various life-forms we know have been developed in the pedigree of man and animals, through Amœbæ, Synamœbæ, etc., as in the genealogy given above.

In the course of the development of different life-forms heredity—which, in plain English, is unconscious memory generated in the first life-form and transmitted through all the different species—is the sole factor in the preservation of the parent properties; while adaptation to surrounding conditions and circumstances, natural selection in the struggle for existence, and sexual selection in the struggle of the males for females are the principal factors in the differentiation of species.

Having traced man’s pedigree according to the Evolution theory, from primitive nebulous matter to his present commanding position, and found him possessed with reason and the power of controlling and regulating the forces of nature, our next inquiry is naturally for what purpose is he here and what will become of him eventually. Here we come to the most difficult problem of all ages, which has baffled learned men of all nationalities, and which will probably never be satisfactorily solved. Intimately connected with it is the almost as difficult problem, How was the universe caused at all? There are eminent scientific men who think they can conclusively show that the universe existed from eternity; others as positively assert that it must have been caused by a power outside and independent of itself; while others are equally convinced that it was self-created. But when we examine their arguments we find ourselves unable logically to accept any of their conclusions.

The Atheist declares that the universe has existed from eternity, not having been produced by any other agency, and, therefore, without any beginning; which necessarily implies the conception of infinite past time—an effort of which the human mind is quite incapable. The Pantheist declares that the universe evolved out of potential existence into actual existence by virtue of some inherent necessity; which is as unthinkable as the previous one, for potential existence must be either something, in which case it would be actual existence, or nothing, which it could not possibly be. But admitting, for the sake of argument, the possibility of potential existence as nothing, still we should have to account for its origin, which would involve us in an infinity of still more remote potentialities. The Theistic theory of creation by external agency implies either formation of matter out of nothing, which is inconceivable, or out of pre-existing materials, which leaves us under the necessity of showing the origin of the pre-existing elements, and, like the preceding theory, would involve us in an infinity of remote pre-existences. It also involves the existence of a potentiality outside matter, which must either be caused, which involves a prior cause, or uncaused, in which case it must be either finite or infinite. If it be finite, it must be limited, and, consequently, there must exist something outside its limits, which destroys the notion of its being a first cause. Therefore, it must be infinite. Also, as first cause, it must be independent; for dependency would imply a more remote cause. The first cause must, therefore, be both infinite and absolute, which is an absurdity; for a cause can only exist in relation to its effect, and therefore cannot be absolute; and the fact of its being infinite deprives us of the only means of escape from the difficulty, by showing the impossibility of its being first of all absolute and afterwards cause; for the infinite cannot become what it once was not.

Thus, then, we are driven to the conclusion that logic shows the Theistic conception of the origin of nature, equally as much as the Pantheistic and the Atheistic, to be utterly impossible; but it must be admitted that if, instead of matter, we substitute time and space in our consideration of this most important matter, the Atheistic theory more nearly approaches the conceivable than either of the other two; for by no mental effort can we conceive the formation of time and space either by external agency or inherent necessity. It is absolutely impossible for us to conceive the idea of the non-existence of either time or space.

Because the human mind cannot conceive the possibility of nature being produced by external agency, it does not follow that we are bound to admit the impossibility of the existence of an intelligence controlling nature’s laws; for it is quite possible that such an existence may be, though our finite minds cannot comprehend it. The Agnostic philosopher, although he cannot logically demonstrate the existence of the Divine Being, yet declares that, inasmuch as this universe consists of existing phenomena, it is absolutely necessary that there should be some cause adequate for the production of the effects manifested. By this process of reasoning he arrives at the conclusion that there exists a something controlling nature, which is utterly incomprehensible—an ultimate reality, of which force and matter are alike merely the phenomenal manifestations. This ultimate reality, moreover, is intelligent.

We cannot recall the wonders of the evolutionary development of the universe without at once seeing that there is purpose at the bottom of all, and that chance is no factor in the process. We cannot believe that man is but a fortuitous concourse of atoms. Reason tells us clearly that we are here for a well-ordained purpose; but what that purpose is we cannot tell. The old notion that our destiny is to prepare ourselves here, to live again in our bodily forms, play harps, and sing halleluyah to all eternity, I regard as mere moonshine. Such a fate would be to me far worse than annihilation. But that we have a future destiny of some sort I have no doubt. We know we must die, and that when we die our bodily functions, including brain functions, will cease to be performed. Are we, then, annihilated? The answer of scientists is decisively “Yes, so far as we are concerned as sentient individual beings.” Science teaches us that the three things which make up consciousness, or man’s mental side, are thought, emotion, and volition; that they are inseparably bound up with the brain and the nervous system, whose functions they are; and that when the brain dies these functions cease. This is undeniable. Therefore, if there is any future existence, it is not one of consciousness. The power of muscular movement is arrested at death, and, therefore, we must admit that the power of thought, emotion, and volition ceases at death. Why should the appearance be deceptive in one case and not in the other? It is not the case of a separate entity in the body, but of a distinct function—an effect which ceases with its proper cause. It is absolutely certain, from the teaching of science, that the consciousness grows as the brain and body grow, varies according to the standard of health in the brain, and declines as the general vigour of the brain declines; and, therefore, we can but admit that it dies with the brain. We also learn from Embryology that consciousness evolved by slow degrees from unconsciousness, and that once there was no thought in any of us. Even if science were to admit that man’s consciousness continued after death, it would be equally rational to admit that animals also had a future consciousness; for it is quite clear we have slowly evolved from the lowest germ of animal life. Man’s very attributes are found in a lower degree in animals, and yet it is the possession of his lofty attributes which he says entitles him to conscious immortality. The intellectual qualities in animals differ from those in man only in degree, while in the possession of some of the highest moral attributes—such as courage, fidelity, patience, self-sacrifice, and affection—some of the lower animals, as the dog, the horse, and the ant, far surpass him. Even among human beings themselves these higher qualities, mental and moral, exist in all degrees, from their almost total absence in the savage up to the mental and moral splendour of a Buddha, a Socrates, a Disraeli, or a Gladstone. Are all these lower animals, savage men, and intellectual and moral geniuses, to have individual conscious immortality? If, as some say, man only and not animals are immortal, then the question naturally arises, When and how came man so? If he was always immortal, so were animals. If he became immortal later on, he must either have slowly acquired the gift, or it must have been suddenly conferred upon him. In either case there must have been a particular moment when he became immortal. Can we conceive of such a thing as the species being mortal one moment and immortal the next? The question of how he became immortal is still more difficult, as the question why, or for what merit, is wholly unanswerable. Then, again, science teaches us that animal life, of whatever form, will vanish from the earth long before the inevitable decay of the planet itself. Geologists tell us that, in obedience to a general law, all species have their term of living. They appear, and after a time disappear. How absurd, then, to raise a question as to the conscious individual immortality of the countless myriads of a species that shall itself have utterly vanished without leaving a trace!

Are we, then, annihilated at death? Yes, as conscious individuals. We are bound to admit the force of all the arguments brought forward by science against the theory of a future conscious existence; but these arguments in no way affect the great problem of the “ego,” or “self,” which exists in all of us, irrespective of consciousness, memory, or other brain function. A man may be unconscious, and yet live; therefore consciousness is not necessary to life. When we ask ourselves whether we shall be annihilated at death, we should first of all have a clear definition of the word “we” before we reply. What are we? What am I? I am not consciousness, which is but a function of one of my organs, the brain, and which merely enables me to know myself. Then what am I? I cannot conceive that I am anything but the energy or life-power developed by the aggregation of my life-particles, which causes the various organs of my body to perform their functions, as cerebrating, etc. The primordial germ of my body was a simple bioplasm, consisting of a combination of life-molecules, composed of energetic atoms. From these molecules evolved fresh molecules, which, under the laws of heredity and variation, acquired new properties; until, at last, a complex organism became developed, possessing far higher powers than those belonging to the primordial germ. As the development of species continued, higher forces became manifested; until, at last, the condition of man was reached, and a life-power developed of a much higher order than any previously known. This life-power, or human energy, is the “ego,” the “self,” the cause of the bodily functions, and is eternal. Kant declared there was a world unknown, independent of our conscious phenomenal world; and this we must admit to be true, for we have already granted the existence of an unknown cause, of which force and matter are merely the phenomenal manifestations. It is this outer world of unknown and invisible energy that the scientist finds himself unable to deal with. The death of the body is simply the cessation of cohesion, or dissolution of partnership, between the ultimate atoms of the plasm life-molecules, by which dissolution the property called life ceases, and the atoms of the body assume their original condition, again containing their original sum of force. But what becomes of the huge force developed during the lifetime of the bodily organism? Does that vanish and become a thing of naught? My opinion is that this human force, which is the outcome of the complex union of the ultimate atoms of the plasm life-molecules, and which is but a phenomenal manifestation of the great incomprehensible cause of all phenomena, will, at the death of the body, be re-absorbed into the great animating spirit of the universe, and partake of the nature and properties of the Unknown. This is but my opinion, from which many may differ. I merely offer it as an opinion, and in no way shut my eyes to the great fact that man’s destiny is a riddle as yet unsolved. We may safely leave the matter to be dealt with according to the wisdom of that unknown cause of all things, resting quite assured that we shall be far better disposed of than we could possibly dispose of ourselves, even if we had the power. We must bow the head in a truly scientific spirit, and reply to the great question, “I cannot tell.”

“To be or not to be? that is the question,” says the immortal Shakespeare; after which he sums up the whole argument in two short lines:—

“To die, to sleep. To sleep? perchance to dream—

Aye, there’s the rub.”

PRINTED BY WATTS & CO., 17, JOHNSON’S COURT, FLEET STREET, LONDON.

GENEALOGY OF MAN

Monera (Plasm)

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Amœbæ (Cells)

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Synamœbæ (Multiple cell-forms)

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Ciliata

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Gastrœada

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Turbellaria (Vermes)

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Scolecida

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Himatega (Sack-worm)

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Acrania (Vertebrata)

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Monorrhini

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Selachii (Pisces)

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┌────────────┴───────┐

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DipnoiGanoidei

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SozobranchiiTeleostei

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Urodela

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Protamnia

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ReptiliaMonotremata (Mammalia)

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├───────┐Marsupialia

AvesReptilia│

Placentalia

SECTION OF EARTH’S CRUST
Showing the different Geological Strata and Biological Ascent

TERTIARY PERIOD IN EUROPE.

EOCENE SEAS
After Dawkins

PLEIOCENE SEAS
After Dawkins

PLEISTOCENE SUBMERGENCE
DURING TEMPERATE INTER-GLACIAL EPOCH
(South of England and France only submerged during the
—GLACIAL PERIOD OF SUBMERGENCE)
(After Lyell)

PLEISTOCENE EUROPE
DURING POST-GLACIAL CONTINENTAL CONDITION
After Dawkins

SKELETON OF MAN

SKELETON OF GORILLA SKELETON OF CHIMPANZEE

Outlines of the skulls of a Chimpanzee, the Neanderthal man, and a modern European. After Lyell.

Outline of the skulls of the Neanderthal man, a modern Australian, and the Engis man. After Lyell.

SIDE VIEW OF SKULLS (After Tyler)
A. AUSTRALIAN (PROGNATHOUS).
B. AFRICAN (PROGNATHOUS).
C. EUROPEAN (ORTHOGNATHOUS).

AUSTRALIAN TYPE OF SKULL. (After Topinard.)

MAN’S ANTIQUITY.

When we reflect on the magnitude of the pre-Christian Alexandrian libraries, as well as the magnificent appointments attaching to and lavish wealth expended upon the ancient University of the capital of the Ptolemies, we seem almost unable to realise the fact that people of education and intellect, until quite lately, believed that all this intellectual and literary magnificence had reached that pitch of excellence in the short space of less than four thousand years. In this period of time it was believed that man had so far risen in intellectual capacity from the absolutely ignorant condition of the first pair as described in Genesis as to have reached that state of mental perfection possessed by the professors in the Alexandrian, Athenian, and Sicilian schools. We can see Professor Euclid pointing out on the blackboard how, the sides of a rectilinear polygon all touching a circle, the area of the polygon is equal to the rectangle contained by the radius of the circle and the semi-perimeter of the polygon; Professor Archimedes would be explaining the theory that, if a force act upon a body, the measure of the force in absolute units is numerically equal to the time-rate of change of momentum and to the space-rate of change of kinetic energy; Professor Eratosthenes would be impressing upon his class the importance of the knowledge of the globular shape of the earth; and Professor Hipparchus would be startling his hearers by stating that he would show them how the failure of the sun to reach the same point in the same time in his annual circuit (according to the old geocentric theory) caused the vernal equinoxial sign to give place to the next zodiacal sign every 2,152 years.

Here was a galaxy of intellectual attainments indeed! With such a picture before our eyes we are calmly asked to believe that so little time as less than four thousand years had been sufficient for the building up of this vast intellectual edifice out of such rude materials as the man and woman of Eden, when the two thousand years following have been productive of so little advancement, notwithstanding the exquisite materials upon which to work that were left for us by the Alexandrian and Athenian sages. We cannot believe so evident an absurdity to-day; and yet it is little more than half a century since the whole of Christendom accepted without any doubt whatever the old traditional statement of the Church that man had only inhabited this earth for rather less than six thousand years.

How is it, then, that we have believed the traditionary story for so long and now reject it as absurd? People have believed the story of the creation according to Genesis partly because it was dangerous to do otherwise and partly because there was no absolute proof to the contrary. In 1774, however, a German of the name of Esper made a discovery which gave the finishing touch to the mortal wound inflicted upon the Christian and Jewish superstitions by the previous adoption of the Copernican system of astronomy; and, just as Copernicus, Bruno, Kepler, Galileo, Descartes, and Newton drove the first half-dozen nails into the coffin of the Bible, so did this discovery of Esper drive into it the first of the last half-dozen, the remaining five to be subsequently added by Darwin, Huxley, Lyell, Spencer, and Carpenter. The discovery made by J. F. Esper consisted of some human bones, mingled with remains of the Northern bear and other species then unknown, which were lying in the famous cavern of Gailenreuth, in Bavaria; and this was soon followed by the discovery, in 1797, by John Frere, at Hoxne, in Suffolk, of a number of flint weapons, mixed up with bones of extinct animals, the whole being embedded in rocks. These and other similar discoveries made some sensation among scientific men, which resulted in the publication, in 1823, of Dr. Buckland’s “Reliquiæ Diluvianæ,” in which the author summed up all the facts then known tending to the establishment of the truth that man co-existed with animals long since extinct. Immediately after this, in 1826, Tournal, of Narbonne, gave to the world an account of some discoveries he had made in a cave in Aude (France), where he had found bones of the bison and reindeer, cut and carved by the hand of man, together with remains of edible shell-fish, which must have been brought there by some one who dwelt there. A few years afterwards De Christol, of Montpellier, discovered human bones and fragments of pottery, mixed with the remains of the Northern bear, hyæna, and rhinoceros, in the caverns of Pondres and Souvignargues. In 1833 Schmerling found in the caverns of Engis and Enghihoul, in Belgium, two human skulls, surrounded by teeth of the rhinoceros, elephant, bear, and hyæna, on some of which were marks of human workmanship, and under which were flint knives and arrow-heads. Two years afterwards Joly, a Montpellier professor, found in the cave of Nabrigas (Lozère) the skull of a cave-bear, having upon it marks made by an arrow, beside which were scattered fragments of pottery bearing the imprints of human fingers. Following upon these discoveries were those made in 1842 by Godwin Austen at Kent’s Cavern, near Torquay, consisting of animal remains and results of man’s handiwork; and those made in 1844, by Lund, in the caves of Brazil, consisting of skeletons of thirty human beings, an ape, various carnivora, rodents, pachyderms, sloths, etc. Kent’s Cavern, in 1847, was again the spot to which all eyes were turned; for there McEnery had found, under a layer of stalagmite, the remains of men and extinct animals. This remarkable discovery was followed, in the same year, by the appearance of a work by Boucher de Perthes, of Abbeville, in which he described the flint tools, etc., found in the excavations made there and in the Somme valley as far as Amiens. In 1857 the celebrated Neanderthal skull was discovered; and in 1858 Prestwich, Falconer, and Pengelly (Englishmen) found more flint implements in the lower strata of the Baumann cave, in the Hartz mountains, at the same time that Gosse fils obtained from the sand-pits of Grenelle various flint implements and bones of the mammoth; while in the following year Fontan discovered in the cave of Massat (Ariége) utensils, human teeth, and bones of the cave-bear, hyæna, and cave-lion. Near Bedford, about the same time, Wyatt found, in the gravel-beds, flints similar to those found at Abbeville, and bones of the mammoth, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, ox, horse, and deer; which discovery was soon followed by that of the celebrated human burial place at Aurignac, by Lartet, in 1860, in which were found human remains, together with bones of the bear, reindeer, bison, hyæna, wolf, mammoth, and rhinoceros, a number of flint and horn implements, and the remaining ashes of fires. The world was at last induced to give some heed to the new cry of man’s extreme antiquity when Boucher de Perthes, of Abbeville, in 1863, discovered at Moulin-Quignon, at a depth of fifteen feet, in a virgin argilo-ferruginous bed belonging to the later Pleiocene or early Pleistocene period, the half of a human lower jaw-bone (which had belonged to an aged person of small stature), covered with an earthy crust, by the side of which lay a flint hatchet, covered with the same kind of crust; and not far from which were also buried, in the same bed, two mammoths’ teeth. After this discovery scientific men generally subscribed to the new theory of the antiquity of man, and all seemed eager to pursue their investigations without delay, the result being that we are now receiving, almost day by day, fresh evidence on the subject, and hope soon to arrive at a tolerably accurate conclusion as to the earliest date of man’s appearance upon earth.

Let us now look more closely at the discoveries made in the various caves referred to above, and also see what advances had been made by geologists in other directions during the same period, as well as what amount of progress has been made during the last twenty years. Dr. Schmerling, the Belgian geologist and comparative anatomist, after exploring the Engis and other caves in the province of Liège, published an illustrated work, giving the results of his investigations, which were highly interesting, and contributed largely to the establishment of the theory of man’s antiquity. In these caves Schmerling found the bones of the cave-bear, hyæna, elephant, and rhinoceros, together with human bones, none of which gave any evidence of having been gnawed, from which circumstance it was inferred that these caves had not been the dwelling-places of wild beasts; and the fact that the bones were scattered about without any order having been observed in their distribution pointed to the conclusion that the caves had not been used as burying-places. Probably, therefore, these remains had been washed into the caves from time to time, and had gradually become covered with deposit, and thus protected and preserved. There were no complete skeletons found; but in the Engis cave were discovered the remains of at least three human beings, the skull of one being embedded by the side of a mammoth’s tooth, and in such a state of disintegration that it fell to pieces on being moved; while the skull of another, an adult, was buried, five feet deep, by the side of a tooth of a rhinoceros, several bones of a horse, and some reindeer bones. Besides the bones, there were also discovered some rude flint implements, a polished bone needle, and other products of man’s industry, all embedded in the same layer as the bones. It follows from these facts that man lived on the banks of the Meuse at the same time as the rhinoceros, mammoth, hyæna, and cave-bear, extinct animals of the Pleiocene and early Pleistocene era.

Not far from these caves are those of the Lesse Valley, in which Dupont discovered, in 1864, three different layers of human and other remains, the lowest of which contained the bones of the mammoth, rhinoceros, and other extinct animals, together with flint instruments of the rudest type, instruments of reindeer horn, and a human lower jaw with a marked resemblance to the lower jaw of the higher apes. Another discovery at some little distance away from these caves was made in 1857 in what is called the Neanderthal Cave, in the valley of the Düssel, between Düsseldorf and Elberfeld, which is important, not so much as an indication of the length of time that man has lived on the earth, as of the close resemblance existing between the skulls of human beings in the early Pleistocene era and the skulls of apes. The discovery consisted of a human skull and a number of human bones, together with the bones of the rhinoceros, which latter were subsequently unearthed. The skull was of such a character as to raise the question of whether it was human or not, the forehead being narrow and very low and the projection of the supra-orbital ridges enormously great. The long bones of the skeleton agreed with those of men of the present day in respect to length, but were of extraordinary thickness, and the ridges for the attachment of muscles were developed in an unusual degree, showing that the individual was possessed of great muscular strength, especially in the thoracic neighbourhood. Drs. Schaafhausen and Fuhlrott pointed out that the depression of the forehead was not due to any artificial pressure, as the whole skull was symmetrical, and that the individual must have been distinguished by an extraordinarily small cerebral development as well as uncommon corporeal strength. Professor Huxley considers this Neanderthal skull to be the most ape-like one he ever beheld, and Busk, a great authority, gives valuable reasons for supposing it to be the skull of an individual occupying a position midway between the man and the gorilla or chimpanzee. Huxley has carefully compared the Engis and Neanderthal skulls, and his remarks upon them are given in their entirety in Lyell’s “Antiquity of Man.” From these remarks we gather that the Engis skull was dolichocephalic in form, extreme length 7.7 inches, extreme breadth not more than 5.25 inches, forehead well arched, superciliary prominences well but not abnormally developed, horizontal circumference 20½ inches, longitudinal arc from nasal spine to occipital protuberance 13¾ inches, transverse arc from one auditory foramen to the other, across the middle of the sagittal suture, 13 inches. The Neanderthal skull is so different from the Engis skull that Huxley says “it [Neanderthal] might well be supposed to belong to a distinct race of mankind.” It is 8 inches in extreme length, 5.75 inches in breadth, and only 3.4 inches from the glabello-occipital line to the vertex; the longitudinal arc is 12 inches, and the transverse arc probably about 10¼ inches, but, owing to incompleteness of temporal bones, this could not be correctly ascertained; the horizontal circumference is 23 inches, which high figure is due to the vast development of the superciliary ridges; and the sagittal suture, notwithstanding the great length of the skull, only 4½ inches. Huxley sums up his examination of the Neanderthal skull in these words: “There can be no doubt that, as Professor Schaafhausen and Mr. Busk have stated, this skull is the most brutal of all known human skulls, resembling those of the apes, not only in the prodigious development of the superciliary prominences and the forward extension of the orbits, but still more in the depressed form of the brain-case, in the straightness of the squamosal suture, and in the complete retreat of the occiput forward and upward from the superior occipital ridges;” and he then proceeds to clearly show that the skull could not have belonged to an idiot. On the whole, the Engis skull more clearly approaches the Caucasian type, while the Neanderthal differs entirely from all known human skulls, being more nearly allied to the chimpanzee than to the human. Both these skulls belonged to individuals who lived in the early Pleistocene era, the Engis being probably the older of the two, and yet the Engis is the most like the modern European skull, which tells us plainly that in those remote times there were existing in Belgium and the surrounding districts two different races of men, one highly advanced in brain evolution and the other in a wretchedly low condition of intellectual development. The Neanderthal skull probably formed part of an individual belonging to the tail-end of a semi-human race, while the Engis skull, in all probability, belonged to an oriental immigrant belonging to a more advanced race. It must be always remembered that scientific men have long since admitted the truth of the theory that the differences in character between the brain of the highest races of men and that of the lowest, though less in degree, are of the same order as those which separate the human from the ape brain, the same rule holding good in regard to the shape of the skull.

The discoveries made in Kent’s Cavern, in the year 1842 and again in 1847, led to a thorough investigation of the series of galleries forming the now celebrated Brixham Caves, near Torquay, and as early as 1859 the labours of the explorers were rewarded by the discovery of a number of flint implements in the cave-earth or loam, underneath the layer of stalagmite, which were the work of men living in Palæolithic times, prior to the existence of the reindeer, whose antlers were found deposited in the layer of stalagmite. Previous to this time, when McEnery, in 1826, examined Kent’s Cavern, he had stated that he had found several teeth of Ursus cultridens, a huge carnivore belonging to Tertiary formations, but now extinct; and as this monster was first known in Meiocene deposits in France, but had never been traced in any cavern or fluviatile Pleistocene deposits, although it had occurred in Pleiocene formations, considerable excitement was caused on the score that the flint implements lately found might possibly have belonged to Meiocene, or at latest early Pleiocene men. Further investigations were accordingly commenced for the purpose of solving this problem, the explorations being under the superintendence of Messrs. Vivian and Pengelley; and in 1872 they at last came upon a fine incisor of Ursus cultridens in the uppermost part of the cave-earth, which settled the point as to man’s existence at the same time with the extinct bear in England. The Kent’s Cavern deposits are as follows:—1. Limestone. 2. Black mould, containing articles of mediæval, Romano-British, and pre-Roman date. 3. Stalagmite floor, from 16 to 20 inches thick, containing a human jaw and remains of extinct animals. 4. Black earth, containing charcoal and other evidence of fire, and also bone and flint instruments. 5. Red cave-earth, containing Palæolithic implements and bones and teeth of extinct animals, such as cave-lion, mammoth, rhinoceros, and hyæna, and including the tooth of the Ursus cultridens, or Machairodus latidens. 6. Second stalagmite floor, from 3 to 12 feet thick, covering bones of bears only. 7. Dark red sandy loam, containing bones of bears, three flint implements, and one flint chip. The fact of the Ursus cultridens being contemporary in England with man is of enormous interest to geologists and anthropologists, for it places the date of Palæolithic man as far back as the Pleiocene age, instead of, as heretofore, in the Pleistocene.

The caves of the Dordogne Valley in south-western France have supplied us with some very good relics of a very remote period. They are situated in rocks of Cretaceous age, and form shelters in which ancient huntsmen used to find dwelling-places, leaving behind them refuse-heaps and instruments of various kinds. In the Vezère Caves, which are included in the Dordogne series, there is one of very ancient date, Le Moustier, in which is a bed of sand having both above and below floors of a similar character, containing charcoal, flint instruments, and other remains. The depth of this sandy bed is about 10 inches, having the appearance of a river deposit; and, although many flint instruments have been found in it of a more ancient date than those unearthed in the other caves, yet no worked bone instruments have been discovered. In another cave, the Langerie, bronze and polished stone objects have been found, together with various kinds of pottery, below which, and under masses of fallen rock, covered with Palæolithic flints and sculptured bones and antlers of reindeer, a human skeleton was discovered lying under a block of stone. In another cave, La Madeleine, was found a mammoth tusk, on which was rudely carved a picture of the animal itself, proving incontestably that cave-men lived here in mammoth times. In the Mentone cave Dr. Rivière, in 1872, suddenly came upon the bones of a human foot, which caused him to make a very careful examination of the deposit, the result being that he unearthed an entire human skeleton at a depth of 20 feet, surrounded by a large number of unpolished flint flakes and scrapers, and a fragment of a skewer, about six inches long. No metal, pottery, or polished flint was found; but bones of extinct mammals were scattered about, thus suggesting a remote Palæolithic antiquity. The skeleton is 5 feet 9 inches high, the skull dolichocephalic, forehead narrow, temple flattened, and facial angle measuring 80 to 85 degrees; the teeth were worn flat by eating hard food, and the long bones are strong and flattened.

No human bones have as yet been discovered in the deposit of the Somme valley, where so many Palæolithic flints have been found; but in the valley of the Seine, at Clichy, Messrs. Bertrand and Reboux found, in 1868, portions of human skeletons in the same beds where Palæolithic implements had been embedded. These bones were found at a depth of seventeen feet, and included a female skull of very inferior type, having enormously thick frontal bone and a low, narrow roof, slanting from before backwards. A very good specimen of human fossil is that known as the “Denise Fossil Man,” comprising the remains of more than one skeleton found in a volcanic breccia near Le Puy-en-Velay, in Central France. These bones have been very carefully examined by the members of the French Scientific Congress, as also the deposit in which they were found, and the opinion arrived at is that the fossils are genuine and their age early Pleistocene. Another most interesting specimen of ancient human remains is the skeleton found buried under four Cypress forests, superimposed one upon the other, in the delta of the Mississippi, near New Orleans, at a depth of sixteen feet. Dr. Dowler ascribes to this skeleton an antiquity of at least 50,000 years, reckoning by the minimum length of time that must have elapsed during the formation of the deposits found and the sinking of the four successive forest beds. In another part of the same delta, near Natchez, a human bone, os innominatum, accompanied by bones of the mastodon and megalonyx, was washed out of what is believed to be a still more ancient alluvial deposit. Dr. Dickeson, in whose possession the said bone is now, states that it was buried at a depth of thirty feet, and geologists agree that its date is very early, some maintaining that it is probably of a higher antiquity than any yet discovered.

From these discoveries it is abundantly evident that man existed on the earth contemporaneously with the mastodon and other extinct mammals belonging to the Pleiocene and early Pleistocene eras. There are, however, people who stoutly deny that this can be so—at any rate, as regards Northern and Central Europe—and who rank the discoveries at Moulin Quignon, Engis, Kent’s Cavern, etc., with late Pleistocene remains. They maintain that the beds in which these relics were found could not have been of Pleiocene or early Pleistocene formation, inasmuch as they lie above the till and boulder-clay which form the glacial deposits of the time when Europe was an Arctic region—that is to say, of late Pleistocene times. Therefore, they say, man’s earliest existence in Europe was post-glacial or late Pleistocene. But while the fact of the human remains having been discovered above the boulder-clay appears to point to a post-glacial date, still there is confronting us the perplexing anomaly of the contemporary existence of extinct mammals belonging to a tropical fauna, which, if we accept this theory, involves the necessity of admitting that a tropical climate followed the last glacial epoch—a condition of things that we know never existed at all. The fact is there have been more periods of glaciation than one, each being followed by the deposition of boulder-clays; and between the periods of intense Arctic cold there were intervals of tropical or sub-tropical heat, when mammals belonging to and requiring a tropical climate ventured as far north as the north of England, to become extinct when the period of glaciation supervened. The last glacial period, we know, extended its area of influence as far as the high peaks of Switzerland and Northern Italy, completely overwhelming the whole of Northern Europe as far south as the latitude of 45°, and the whole of North America as far south as the latitude of 40°; since when there has been a gradual diminution of cold until the present temperate climate supervened. Now, if it can be positively ascertained that all the boulder-clays found in England and Northern Europe were deposited during and immediately after this last glacial period, the date of man’s first appearance in those districts, as far as we have as yet any evidence, must be post-glacial; but in such a case it would have been impossible that a tropical fauna and flora could have existed in the same localities, whereas their remains have been abundantly found lying side by side with the remains of Palæolithic man. The conclusion we must draw is that the boulder-clays found below the remains of Palæolithic man could not have been deposited after the last period of glaciation, but must have followed some prior glacial condition, and that man existed in England and Northern Europe contemporaneously with extinct mammalia during inter-glacial or pre-glacial times, when the climate of England was tropical or sub-tropical—that is to say, in middle Pleistocene or late Pleiocene times. If man really existed in England in Pleiocene times, in favour of which view there appears to be strong evidence, he would have been in all probability the companion of the extinct tropical mammalia found deposited in the Cromer Forest beds, and some of which belonged to Meiocene times. This forest was in existence at the close of the Pleiocene era, and stretched from Cromer far away into what is now the German Ocean, uniting Norfolk and Suffolk to Holland and Belgium; but soon after the commencement of the Pleistocene period the North Sea gradually swept over the old continent between Britain on the west and Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands on the east, thus converting the old forest at Cromer into the bed of the ocean, where the stumps of the trees may now be seen embedded in deposit at very low tide. Immediately after the disappearance of this forest the first period of glaciation commenced, from which moment until the close of the glacial periods the alternations in temperature and surface level were frequent and of enormous magnitude, the correct sequence of which changes we have as yet no proper conception.

If we go back to the commencement of the Tertiary great division of the geological periods, we shall find that, at the beginning of the Eocene deposits, the Secondary cretaceous rocks had been upheaved from the bottom of the sea, and had become the dry ground of a large continent, of which the British Islands formed a part; so that Eocene fauna and flora in England had free communication with continental life. The relative positions of land and water during this first Tertiary period were as follows: The great continent spread from North America to Europe, uniting Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Faroes, Shetlands, Orkneys, Ireland, and Britain (except south-east portion), with Scandinavia and Spitzbergen on the north-east, and with France (Brittany) and Spain on the south. There were three seas—the North Sea, which, like a wedge with its point downwards, separated Greenland, Iceland, and Faroes from Spitzbergen and Scandinavia; the South-Eastern Sea, which stretched from the top of Denmark to Boston in Lincolnshire, thence to Lyme Regis in Dorsetshire, and on to Cherbourg, covering the whole of the east and south-east of England; and the Atlantic, which was separated from the North Sea by Iceland, Faroes, and intermediate lands, and from the South-Eastern Sea by the British Islands, Western France, and intermediate lands. These Eocene seas teemed with fish now only found in more Southern latitudes; while the inland lakes and rivers abounded with reptilian life. On the land tropical flora and fauna flourished, among the former being palms, cypresses, and giant cacti, and among the latter, in Lower Eocene times, large numbers of marsupial species, in the Middle Eocene also lion-like carnivora, and in Upper Eocene tapir-like animals, herds of Anchitheres (ancestors of the horse), Hyænodon (ancestors of hyæna), and Lemurs. The Miocene period opened with a lower temperature than that of the Eocene, and with a considerable difference of surface level in Denmark and on the South of England, the land having been upheaved to such an extent as to leave no part of the country under water, uniting Yorkshire with Denmark, and dividing the South-Eastern Sea into two portions, the Northern one stretching from Schleswig as far as a few miles from the present Lincolnshire coast and then back to the present mouth of the Scheldt; and the latter stretching from Boulogne-sur-Mer to Hastings and Portland Bill, and back to Cherbourg. Otherwise the relationship between land and water was much the same as in Eocene times. The climate of the Meiocene period was sub-tropical, and in the lower strata were found placental mammals, but few marsupials; in the middle beds remains of the mastodon, rhinoceros, anthropomorphous apes, sloths, and ant-eaters; and in the upper layers antelopes and gazelles; but no mammalian species in any Meiocene deposit has continued to present times, all having become extinct. When we arrive at the Pleiocene age we have quite a different state of things; the Atlantic and North Seas gradually united together, thus separating Europe from Faroes, Iceland, Greenland, and North America; and on the east of Britain the North Sea slowly descended as far as the present mouth of the Thames, thus separating Britain from Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands; while the two Southern seas disappeared altogether, leaving a huge continent, the borders of which stretched from the present west coast of Norway to Denmark, the Netherlands, across to Essex, central Norfolk (east Norfolk and Suffolk being part of North Sea), and up to the Shetlands, at which point a turn was made south to a few miles west of present west coast of Ireland, and thence southward to a few miles west of present coast of Brittany, in France, thus leaving the British Isles, France, and the rest of Europe as one large continent. To accomplish these enormous changes, a very long time was required, during which the climate was gradually becoming more temperate, being in older Pleiocene times sub-tropical and in newer Pleiocene warm-temperate; while the fauna and flora gradually became less tropical in kind. The older Pleiocene deposits are divided into coralline crag and reg crag, while the newer Pleiocene consist of Norwich crags and Weybourne sands, on a level with which latter was the Cromer forest, submerged by the North Sea during the earlier Pleistocene period.

At this point commence those enormous alterations in the surface level and climate of this part of the world which produced such extraordinary results, and during which man made his first appearance in Britain. At the very commencement of the Pleistocene era the temperature in Britain was lowered to such an extent as to produce a sudden disappearance of the semi-tropical fauna and flora: the land had reached the high elevation of 500 feet above the present level, joining Scotland and Scandinavia, and there had appeared in the North Sea large blocks of ice, which rapidly increased in size and quantity, and continually pushed farther south, until at length, after a long lapse of time, the whole of Northern Europe, Asia, and America as far as the latitude of about 45° became like a huge ice-house, the Arctic cold driving all life before it to a more southern latitude, those forms which had lived in Britain during Meiocene and Pleiocene times being the first to disappear on the earliest sign of the approaching cold, and the Arctic flora and fauna which took their place being afterwards compelled also to move southward, owing to the intense severity of the glaciation.

When this state of things had lasted a very considerable time the climate became milder, the melting ice deposited its boulder-clay, and the high continent commenced to sink again to its former level, during which gradual submergence the climate became still warmer, until it at length reached a more than temperate mildness, at one time being almost tropical. Still the land continued to sink, and this submergence lasted until the British part of the great continent had become a large archipelago of small islands, the surface of the land being upwards of one thousand feet below the present level. It has been calculated that such a submergence would require at the least 88,000 years to be completed; so that a general idea may be formed of the enormous periods of time occupied by these glacial and inter-glacial epochs. While the British archipelago existed, another change of climate took place, resulting in another glacial period, but probably not of such intensity as the previous one. At this period the upper boulder clay was deposited in the sea, to be afterwards upheaved above the sea level in Yorkshire and other places. After a long continuance of this glaciation the land commenced to rise again and the climate to improve, until, after a period of about 136,000 years (according to careful computation), there was produced another continental condition, the ground reaching about 600 feet higher than now, and the climate becoming temperate once more. England, Ireland, Scotland, Scandinavia, Denmark, the Netherlands, France, and Spain once again formed a mighty continent, the climate of which was cold-temperate, becoming milder year by year, and the elevation of which was gradually declining, as it has continued to do until the present time, the British islands slowly becoming once more separated from the continent of Europe. During the last temperate continental condition Palæolithic and Neolithic man lived in Britain, as is clearly proved by the evidence brought forward by various authors in support of the contention; but, as we have seen, Palæolithic man’s remains discovered in the various deposits were often in the company of the bones of extinct mammals belonging to a tropical fauna, which species could not have existed in Britain with such a climate as that which followed the last period of glaciation, but must have lived either in pre-glacial times, or, in other words, at the end of Pleiocene or very beginning of Pleistocene times, or else in inter-glacial or mid-Pleistocene times; and whichever alternative be adopted we are bound to fix the date of the Palæolithic remains at the same period. To fix their date in the very earliest of Pleistocene, or latest of Pleiocene times, would give them an antiquity of nearly 300,000 years; to fix it in mid-Pleistocene times, during the temperate or inter-glacial period of submergence, would give them an antiquity of upwards of 170,000 years; and to fix it in post-glacial times would give them an antiquity of probably 70,000 or 80,000 years at most. The inter-glacial theory would, on the whole, appear most likely to be the correct one, were it not for the fact that, during the inter-glacial period, this country was partially submerged, which would probably have prevented any communication in those times between the islands and the mainland. We must, however, not forget that the great submergence commenced during the first period of glaciation, and did not cease until the second period had been reached, so that the inter-glacial period of warmth would take place when England and Scotland were but little different from now in their relationship to the continent, and long before the archipelago was formed. Whether it would have been possible under these conditions for Palæolithic man to cross from the continent to the British islands we cannot say; but the probability is that the distance to travel by water would have been far too great in such early times; in which case we have no alternative but to place the date of man’s earliest existence in England at the latest Pleiocene age, as indeed we are compelled to do by the fact that Palæolithic implements have been found in Kent’s cavern side by side with teeth of the extinct bear of that period, as well as by the discoveries made in the Engis and other caves.

In Southern Europe and the Southern States of North America the glacial epoch had little effect, so that man’s age upon the earth in those districts will be better calculated than it can ever be here or in France and Belgium; and it will not be surprising if we learn before long that man lived in the districts surrounding the Mediterranean Sea in early Pleiocene times. This sea, it must be recollected, was almost dried up during the early and middle Pleistocene periods, and there was no communication between it and the Atlantic Ocean, so that Europe was connected both on the east and west with Africa, and was also one continuous continent with Asia, there being then no Black Sea and no Caspian Sea. The probability, therefore, is that man first became a rational being, parting with his ape-like characteristics, somewhere in Southern Asia or Northern Africa, or, more probably still, in the now submerged continent of Lemuria, which once joined China, India, and Africa in one continental system; after which he emigrated in different directions, finding his way north-westwards over the European continent as far as the very limit of the Franco-British continental system. At what period man first existed in the districts around the Mexican Gulf it is at present impossible to say; but the skull found in the Mississippi beds is calculated to be at least 50,000 years old, and by some the date is fixed at 100,000 years, which would carry us back to middle Pleistocene times at least. Man, therefore, most probably existed in Europe long before he had made his appearance in the new world, although it is quite possible that further investigation may lead to the discovery of a still more ancient stock than that to which the Mississippi skull belonged. How long a time elapsed between the first appearance of Palæolithic man in Northern Europe, and the subsequent advent of Neolithic man, it is at present impossible to say with any degree of certainty; but the interval must have been of enormous length, for we find no traces of polished stone implements until the very close of the Pleistocene era during the last Franco-British continental system. At this period man had become much more civilised than his ancestors of the Palæolithic age; his implements were more ornamental and better fitted for the purposes for which they were intended; his mode of life had become more settled; and he had developed primitive industries. In the ancient “hut circles” found at Standlake and at Fisherton, near Salisbury, have been found instruments used for spinning and weaving, which date back to Neolithic times, also fragments of pottery and stones used for grinding corn, side by side with the remains of domestic animals. From this we conclude that Neolithic man was at this time a companion of domestic animals, a keeper of flocks and herds, and an agriculturalist. He very soon became, in addition to this, a miner, as is evident from the remains found at Cissbury, on the South Downs, and at Grimes Graves, near Bandon, in Suffolk. Shafts had been sunk and galleries dug out of the ground in order to unearth a better kind of flint for manufacturing useful implements; and in some of these galleries the tools of the workmen have been discovered, consisting of picks made out of stags’ antlers, polished stone celts, chisels of bone and antler, and small cups made of chalk. With these and other primitive tools the flint had been worked out in several places, forming deep hollows in and near which were the remains of birds, sheep, goats, horses, pigs, and dogs, which evidently had served as companions to and food for the miners. Canoes, hollowed out of large trees by the use of fire and axes, have also been discovered, together with huge paddles for propelling them; and numerous have been the discoveries of heads of javelins, arrows, and spears, which were probably used as weapons of warfare, the population by this time having grown large and divided itself into small communities more or less at enmity with each other.

Similar progress was made by Neolithic man on the continent of Europe, as we know from the discoveries made in Switzerland. As early as 1829 very ancient piles had been discovered in the lake of Zürich, which have since been found to be the remains of primitive lake-dwellings, dating from Neolithic times. These peculiar habitations consisted of wooden houses built on platforms erected on a number of wooden piles driven into the bottom of the lake, and were, no doubt, so constructed with the view of protecting the small colony from the raids of wild beasts and warlike people from other parts of the country. Most of these lake-dwellings were burnt down, their charred remains sinking to the bottom of the lake, where they have been discovered together with heaps of corn, pieces of woven and plaited cloth, mealing or grinding stones, earthenware implements, nets and mats, and implements of stone, antler, and bone. Numbers of domestic and other animals were kept in these dwellings, such as the dog, horse, pig, sheep, and cow; and fish appears to have been a regular article of consumption. Similar discoveries have been made in Denmark by Professor Steenstrup and others, which show an equal advance in civilisation and culture during early Neolithic times. Vast accumulations of refuse matter, in the form of oyster-shells, fish-bones, and animal remains, have been found near the shores of the Baltic, the whole being heaped up into mounds, evidently having formed public refuse-heaps for communities of settlers. Scattered about were also found polished stone axes, but no metal implements; while upon some of the stones were well-drawn engravings, pointing to a considerable advance in culture; and the fact that the remains of the domestic animals prove them to be of southern and eastern origin suggests the probability that these settlers were immigrants from the south-east of Europe, where we should expect considerable advance to have been effected in civilisation.

It is extremely probable and generally admitted that man became civilised in oriental countries, and made his way northwards and westwards, gradually covering the whole of Europe; so that we should expect the races of Egypt, Persia, and India to be far more highly cultured than those who were establishing themselves in the west at the same time. It would take a very long time indeed for people to spread themselves from Egypt and Persia over the whole of Europe, and during all this time they would naturally, owing to their wandering habits, advance in civilisation far more slowly than those who remained in their original homes. At the time, therefore, that Neolithic man had become a settler in Europe and Britain we may fairly suppose that Egypt, Persia, and India were great, powerful, and prosperous states, well advanced in civilisation and art, and, perhaps, even the tail-end of a mighty and prosperous civilisation that had preceded them long ages before. It was probably from these highly-civilised centres that the discovery of bronze was carried into Europe, which marked the commencement of what is called the Bronze or Prehistoric Age, during which period the use of bronze implements almost entirely superseded that of polished stone weapons.

Before the Bronze Age had fairly commenced the last of the Pleistocene deposits had taken place, and the recent layers of earth had begun to distribute themselves upon the older strata; but how long a time has actually elapsed since the completion of the Pleistocene stratification has not been accurately ascertained. A rough approximation to the relative length of the Pleistocene and Prehistoric periods may be obtained from the fact that the valleys were cut down by streams flowing through them as much as a hundred feet deep in the former period, while the work done by the rivers during the latter period is measured by the insignificant fluviatile deposits close to the adjacent streams. We may, therefore, conclude that the Pleistocene era was, beyond all calculation, of longer duration than the Prehistoric. It must not be imagined from this that the Prehistoric period was a short one, for there have been a series of changes in the fauna, and a series of invasions of different races of men into Europe, which must have required a very long time to have been brought about, judging from similar changes recorded in history.

It is believed that, soon after the commencement of the Bronze Age, an Aryan stream of life poured over Europe from Central Asia, and finally invaded England, driving out the old inhabitants and re-stocking the country with a host of Aryan Celts, who brought with them the knowledge of bronze manufacture. The defeated natives retreated to Ireland and the west of England and Scotland, and finally gave themselves up to their conquerors, whom they in future served as slaves. Thus were annihilated the Neolithic men of Britain, and thus was the use of polished stone weapons superseded by that of bronze implements. These Celtic invaders, like their conquered predecessors, lived upon the flesh both of wild and domestic animals, as is evident from the discovery made in 1867 at Barton Mere, near Bury St. Edmunds, where bronze spear-heads were found in and around large piles and blocks of stone, together with vast quantities of the broken bones of the stag, roe, wild boar, hare, urus, horse, ox, hog, and dog, as well as fragments of pottery. Fire was produced by these men by striking a flint flake against a piece of iron pyrites, as is evident from the discovery of these articles in and around charred remains of fires; thus a great advance was made in this direction upon the habits of the older inhabitants, who had only been able to procure fire by rapidly turning a piece of wood between their two hands, the point being fixed in a hollow on another piece of wood, so that the great friction which resulted produced heat sufficient to generate flame.

Following the Bronze Age was the Iron Age, during which period the historic era commenced; and thus we have not only various discoveries to prove that iron gradually supplanted bronze, but history bears witness to the same truth. The Homeric legends abound with feats performed by heroes who wielded bronze and iron weapons; and from Hesiod, who wrote nearly five hundred years before Herodotus, we learn that iron had already superseded bronze among the Greeks, and that the archæologists of his day recognised a distinct era of the past as the Age of Bronze. The probability is that the discovery of the mode of separating iron from its ore and turning it into useful articles was made in Asia, from whence it was afterwards introduced into Europe; for we find that at the very first appearance of iron in Britain and France there were iron coins and iron ornaments in regular use among the people, which articles were no doubt brought by invading tribes of oriental people. In the early or prehistoric portion of the Iron Age the practice of burying the dead at full length first became known in Britain, cremation having always been practised previously.

Having now arrived at historic times, our inquiry into man’s antiquity need not be further continued. For the searcher after truth there only now remains the task of carefully considering the facts here brought forward and comparing the conclusions arrived at with the old orthodox story of the creation of the world and man as found in the Bible. If the story read in the Book of Nature be a true one, then man has lived upon the earth several hundred thousand years, and has passed from a state of unconscious animal existence, through innumerable stages of savage, semi-savage, and civilised conditions, to his present commanding position. If the story read in the so-called Book of God be a true one, then the world and man were created less than six thousand years ago. The reader must judge for himself which is the truth.

PLAN OF EVOLUTION OF
MIND IN MAN

A creeping Amœba, or unicellular Protist that changes its form continually; with cell-nucleus in the middle, within which is the nucleolus. After Haeckel.

Gastrula of a Gasteropoda (Gastrœada)
After Haeckel.
A. Ectoderm. B. Endoderm. C. Mouth. D. Gastric cavity.

EVOLUTION OF MIND.

It seems hardly credible that there should exist people who profess to accept the Darwinian theory of development of species in all its fulness, and yet reject the idea of the human mind having been evolved by slow stages from the primitive sense-organ of our lowliest ancestors, the Protista. Such inconsistency seems almost puerile, and, were it not for the fact that the admission of this truth would be the final blow at the various faiths of the world, we should not be called upon to-day to defend a position so utterly impregnable as that assumed by Haeckel and others in regard to the evolution of the human mind. When education has advanced further there will, we must hope, be less of this shutting of the eyes to obvious truths for the mere sake of propping up for a little while longer the belief in a batch of fairy tales and preposterous legends. As we look around us upon the wonderful objects of nature we see everywhere animation and law; the heavens above are full of life—suns, planets, moons, and other celestial bodies incessantly moving to and fro, all bound in their courses by the immutable laws of nature; the vast ocean, teeming with myriads of living beings, is incessantly rolling and roaring like some great monster, but never exceeds the limits which nature has assigned to its action; and the whole face of the earth presents a constant scene of activity of some kind or other—volcanoes discharging their molten fluid, huge glaciers grinding along the ground, monster rivers rushing forward with incessant roar, and the vegetable and animal kingdoms increasing and multiplying at a marvellous pace. All this is life—in fact, everything we see around us, of whatever form or shape, is life of some sort. The very ground upon which we stand is full of life, each particle of dust being held to its fellow particles by mutual attraction; and there is not a single atom of the earth’s substance or of the whole universe that we can say is minus this property of life or activity; nothing in the universe that we know of ever remains for one moment in a state of rest; everything is constantly moving, and every particle of the whole contributes its own share to the general activity which we term motion or life. The whole universe is a huge manifestation of phenomena, which make up the sum-total of life or activity. The sun rotating on its axis is one form of life; the moon silently wandering round our planet is another form of life; the trees and animals growing and multiplying on the land are other forms; and every lump of ore taken out of the ground and every paving stone in our streets are other forms of life. Every particle of every substance whatever is in a state of continual motion, and therefore full of life. In fact, it is this very motion or life that sustains matter; for matter could not exist—that is, its particles could not hold together, and thus form substance—without the life, motion, activity, or whatever we like to term the property which operates upon them and produces mutual cohesion.

Life has always, therefore, been active in matter, and always will be, for life or motion cannot be separated from matter; and, just as matter has passed from a condition of homogeneity to one of heterogeneity, so has life done likewise. Life possesses infinite potentiality, and manifests itself in an infinite variety of ways by means of different combinations, which it brings about in the molecular atoms of universal matter. It acts, for instance, upon a planet by causing its particles to hold together in one mass apart from other bodies of a similar or dissimilar character; it also acts upon what we unscientifically call inanimate nature by causing its particles to hold together, forming in one case a stone, in another a metal, etc.; and it acts upon what we term animated nature by causing its molecules to combine and procreate. This power of attraction and cohesion of particles of universal matter is life, and it depends entirely upon what particular combination of the molecular atoms of universal matter takes place whether a sun, a moon, a planet, a stone, a crystal, a sponge, a tree, or a man be the result. This much is certain, however, that not one of these bodies can ever be produced except by an evolutionary process subject to the universal and unchangeable law which fixes the sequence.

Animal life, as distinct from all other life, is a comparatively late development or manifestation in the sequence of universal phenomena. This world on which we live had existed as a compact body for millions of ages before life assumed the character of animal life; and so gradual was the process of evolution from the primal condition of homogeneity, through all the manifold stages of life, until the condition of animal life was reached, that it is impossible to fix a particular moment when such life became manifest. So it is with every stage of the evolutionary process; there are no starting-places for particular species, the whole being one continuous unfolding of phenomena, without arrest of any kind.

It is equally impossible to fix a particular point or moment for the manifestation of the crystal life as it is for that of the animal or the vegetable life. All are but gradual unfoldings of the universal potentiality. Crystal life is the highest development of what is popularly but erroneously termed inanimate nature, and differs not one iota from Moneron life, which is the lowest form of animal life, in its constituent elements, the only difference between the two being in the mode of combination of the elementary particles composing each. The crystal elements combine in such proportions as to cause the mass to hold together like other solid bodies, its bulk being increased by the deposition of fresh particles upon its outer surface; while the Moneron elements combine in such a manner as to render the body soft and yielding, so that it can absorb nutriment from without to within and multiply by fission. The elements of both are identically the same: the manner of combination causes the differences between them. Many learned men declare that, if this were true, we ought to be able to take the five elements—viz., Oxygen, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Carbon, and Sulphur—in the necessary proportions, and, by uniting them, form animal life. This, they say, has been attempted, and the result has been failure; therefore, animal life could not have been generated in that manner, but must have been specially created at some particular moment. This argument is absurdly unsound. These persons might just as well say that, to substantiate the assertion that crystals are formed of a combination of elementary molecules, we ought to be able to take the necessary quantity of these elements, and, by uniting them together, form a crystal; and that, if this cannot be done, then crystals also require a special creation. The same argument for a special creation will apply to every species of the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms. Protoplasm is the lowest form of animal life, differing from the highest form of mineral life only in the mode of combination of its elementary particles; but this difference causes the manifestation of fresh phenomena, in this case as in every other modification of a previous state of nature, which gives it the appearance of possessing a property that had not been possessed by any substance previously, whereas, in truth, the apparently new property is but a further development of that previously possessed by inorganic bodies. In short, the power of absorption possessed by the Moneron is simply one of the many manifestations of that universal life or energy that is inherent in all matter, and has been so from all time; but it is a comparatively late development, occurring at a particular period in the world’s history, when the conditions necessary for such a development were present. Before this period no such combination of molecular atoms took place with the same result, simply because the necessary conditions of development were absent. In the same manner precisely there was a prior period when no such substance as a crystal existed, the conditions requisite for the peculiar combination of molecular atoms to result in the formation of a crystal having been absent.

When the world had undergone sufficient evolutionary development there came a time when such atmospheric and other conditions were present as to permit of a modification of the then existing substances and properties, which resulted in the formation of the crystal; and, precisely in the same manner, and for the same reason, a further and later modification resulted in the formation of Protoplasm, which is the earliest form of animal life. This little substance gradually differentiated into two distinct parts, by a nucleus being formed in the centre of the protoplasmic mass, and became possessed with a peculiar power of locomotion, which caused a still greater difference to exist between itself and its ancestral stock. This power of locomotion, again, is but a modification of that life-power of which we have spoken, and forms a stepping-stone between the molecular action of mineral substances and the mental wonders of the human being. The crystal, in common with all other bodies in the mineral kingdom, always possessed this power of locomotion to a limited extent; every one of the individual atoms which make up the whole substance has always had the power of locomotion, for they all attract and repel each other and effect cohesions by their mutual attraction. This locomotive power underwent such a modification when cell-life (Protozoa) was manifested that not only were the constituent molecular atoms individually possessed of this power, as before, but the whole mass of the cell became endowed with the same property, just as a whole continent of free people who have been in the habit of defending themselves singly against their enemies sometimes combine and co-operate with each other in the form of a republic, the function of the individual being assumed by the body as a whole. The little cellular organisms, which are called Amœbæ, possess this extended power of locomotion, and may be seen constantly moving about in the endeavour to locate themselves in the brightest part of their dwelling place, frequently a little pond. They are attracted by light, which clearly proves that they possess a degree of sensory perception, although special sense-organs are of course wanting, the whole mass of the body being nothing more than a single cell composed of protoplasm and nucleus. These little cellular organisms soon unite with each other, forming small bodies composed of several cells in a state of cohesion (Synamœbæ), and on the surface of these multicellular organisms are shortly afterwards thrown out minute threads or ciliae, the first attempt at separation of sense-organs from the surface of the body. In these tiny Protozoa, those organisms which consist of one single cell only, the Amœbæ, as well as those consisting of several cells in a state of union, the Synamœbæ, are able to perform all the functions of animal life—cohesion, sensation, motion, digestion, and reproduction; but, as the organism becomes more and more complex, these different functions are shared among several groups of cells. This differentiation proceeds steadily stage by stage, until at last different senses are located in different parts of the body, and we find animals possessing eyes, ears, noses, and mouths, one organ performing the function of sight, another that of hearing, and so on. All these organs of sense are but parts of the general nervous organisation of the body, which is apparently absent in the Protista, but existing potentially in the protoplasmic substance, as it also does in every other substance in the universe.

The ciliated multiple cell-organism, in course of time, becomes transformed into a hollow body, having a wall composed of a single layer of cells, and this again, by invagination, or folding of itself within itself, forms a double-walled cavity, or Gastrula, having an external opening like a mouth. These little animals, the Gastrœada, having an inner layer of cells (the endoderm), which carries on the nutritive and assimilative functions of the organism, and an outer layer (the ectoderm), which forms the general motor and sense-organ of the body, are the first animal organisms to possess a real sense-organ separate and distinct from other parts of the body. From this epidermal organ of sense are developed, as higher forms of animal life make their appearance, the nerve-cells and sense-cells which form the whole nervous system.

In the fresh-water polyp, or Hydra, which is wanting in distinct organs of sense and nervous system, we find a remarkable sensitiveness to touch, warmth, and light, individual ectodermic neuro-muscular cells performing these functions, but a far greater sensibility being exhibited in the circle of fine prehensible tentacles surrounding the mouth than elsewhere. Here we have a marked attempt at localisation of sense-organs, and a manifestation of instinct, which makes the little animal shrink from the touch.

From the Hydræ evolved the Medusæ, which, instead of being dependent entirely on neuro-muscular cells like the parent forms, developed minute sets of nerves and muscles, by the use of which they became enabled to swim about easily and at their own will and pleasure. We get in this little animal the first appearance of real nerve function, or conductibility of stimulus along the nervous fibre to a muscle which it causes to contract—a totally different function to the contraction of the whole body upon a stimulus being applied to it, as in the case of the Hydræ.

In the worm forms, which evolve from the Gastrœada, we come across the first attempt at special sense-organ formation, in the shape of depressions on the integument of the body. The Himatega, or sack-worms, possess a rudimentary spinal cord, and were the parents of the first true vertebrates, organisms without skulls or brains, but with a true vertebral cord. These little vermiform animals, in addition to their rudimentary spinal cords, exhibited upon the surface of the body several small depressions, which answered the purpose of a set of special sense-organs, one tiny depression being set apart especially for the perception of light waves, another for the perception of sound waves, another for the perception of odours, etc.; and thus gradually came about that wonderful evolutionary process by which bodies became endowed with more or less perfect special sense-organs.

As the animal kingdom developed into higher and higher forms of life, and skulls and brains became the order of the day, the special sense-organs became possessed of larger powers, at the same time that the whole nervous organisation assumed higher and more complex functions, resulting eventually in a very gradual unfolding of the most wonderful of all the latent potentialities of universal life—the marvel of consciousness. This is the present climax of Nature’s evolution, the grandest and most awful achievement of that hidden and mysterious force which baffles comprehension, and beside which all things seen, heard, or felt pale into insignificance.

To point out the precise method of the evolution of mind, step by step, until the final climax of consciousness was reached, would require an abler pen than mine; therefore I shall be content to briefly notice the different products of intellectual development in the order in which they are unfolded, showing the analogy between ontogenesis, or the life-history of the individual, and phylogenesis, or that of the whole race, not now as regards bodily, but only mental, evolution. We must ever remember that the biogenetic law insists that the process of development in the race is reflected in miniature in the embryonic history of every individual. In other words, it is, beyond doubt, an accepted article of faith with biologists that the development of the individual from the embryo in utero to the full-grown man is an exact counterpart of the development of the whole race from the primitive protoplasmic atom, the lowly Moneron, to homo sapiens, equally in regard to mental as to bodily evolution.

Every human individual commences his term of separate existence as a tiny speck of protoplasm, and slowly advances through the phases of separate cell-life, multicellular existence, and the gastrula, vermiform, and pisciform stages, being finally born as a partially-developed member of the human family, from which moment he grows rapidly to the perfection of the adult state, having accomplished, in the short period of about a score of years, precisely what his counterpart, the race, effected in many millions of years. During the period in which the individual dwells in utero great and rapid modifications take place in the general construction of the fœtus; sensory perception makes its appearance very early, being followed quickly by the first attempt at differentiation of special sense-organs in the form of tiny surface depressions; the brain and spinal system gradually take shape and make ready for future action; and the little body slowly assumes a form suitable for separate extra-uterine existence. At the moment of birth the brain and special sense-organs are not yet developed to such a degree that they can properly discharge the functions they are called upon to perform in the mature state; they have to advance gradually to perfection in harmony with the growth of the whole body; and thus it is that a newly-born individual does not see, hear, or exhibit signs of consciousness until some time has elapsed from birth, although it is, at first, quite sensitive to cold and heat. If a lighted candle be held in front of the eyes of a newly-born infant, and moved to and fro, it will be at once observed that the child is totally unconscious of it; and, if a gun be fired off in the room occupied by the child, the effect upon the infantile organism is nil; but, if the air of the room be allowed to cool, the effect will be at once perceived, for the muscles of the child will soon begin to contract, and his vocal bellows to act vigorously. Gradually, however, the sight, hearing, etc., become adjusted, and the infant begins to take notice of surrounding objects, until at about a month after birth pain and pleasure, the first indications of the dawn of the mental powers, manifest themselves. Conscious, as distinguished from instinctive or non-conscious, memory appears to be exercised at about the thirteenth week, and to be immediately followed by association of ideas, the recognition of places and persons, and dreaming. At the same time that these indications of intellectual development are manifesting themselves, a corresponding unfolding of the emotions is observed. Side by side with memory appears fear, followed by pugnacity, play, and, later, anger; while, still later, about on a par with the first period of dreaming, or at about the age of five months, are manifested emulation, jealousy, joy, and grief. In about another month we notice that the child begins to understand words, while, on the emotional side, he evinces signs of awakening sympathy, curiosity, revenge, and gratitude, followed within a couple of months by pride, shame, deceitfulness, passionateness, cruelty, and ludicrousness, which show themselves at the moment the child appears to first exercise what we term true reason. From this point we see rapidly unfolded the higher products of intellectual development, the first of which is morality of a very indefinite kind, which immediately precedes articulation at the age of about fourteen months, being closely followed by knowledge of the use of various simple instruments, afterwards at the age of twenty months by concerted action, and still later by speech, which generally is effected at the age of two years, or rather earlier. Following quickly upon speech we observe judgment, recollection, and self-consciousness manifesting themselves, and, by the time the child has attained the age of two years and a half, morality of a definite kind makes its appearance.

Tracing the child’s development still further, we find the next important intellectual manifestation—viz., superstition—to take place at about three years of age, while concurrently the following emotional products appear—avarice, envy, hate, hope, vanity, mirth, and a love of the beautiful, which are followed, in the course of a few months, by awe and an appreciation of art. From this age to the condition of adult life, the intellectual faculties develop according to the surroundings of the individual, while, on the emotional side, reverence, remorse, and courtesy make their appearance at about the age of five years, and melancholy and ecstasy at about the tenth year.

In the foregoing ontogenetic mirror will be found the key to the unfolding of the great mystery of the evolution of mind in the animal kingdom. We have only to take the geological periods one after the other, and study the various life-forms found in each to see at once that, with the race, the order of sequence in the appearance of the intellectual and emotional faculties is precisely the same as with the individual. We may place the new-born infant intellectually on a par with the lowly molluscs or the vermiform little animals which existed in the Cambrian period, in which little organisms probably pain first made its entry upon the earth, followed by the appearance of pleasure, memory (conscious), and association of ideas in the lowly crustaceans of the later Cambrian and early Silurian periods. With the spiders, fishes, and crabs of the later Silurian and Devonian periods we have brought before us the faculty of recognising places of which these animals are capable, which places them intellectually on a level with a child of four or five months old.

The recognition of individuals next made its appearance in the reptiles of the Carboniferous and Permian epochs; while the birds of the Oölitic and Cretaceous periods were the first to dream, and are thus placed on an intellectual level with a child of five or six months. The emotional development coincides with the intellectual, just as in the case of the infant, for we find fear manifesting itself among the lower molluscs, pugnacity among the crustaceans, play among spiders and crabs, anger among reptiles, and emulation, jealousy, joy, and grief among birds. We now rise in the palæontological scale to the Tertiary period, and find in the Eocene age equine and other mammal forms, such as cats and pigs, which are capable of understanding words and signs, and among which we notice a manifestation of sympathy, curiosity, revenge, and gratitude. In the early Meiocene age we have monkeys, dogs, and elephants exhibiting the clearest signs of true reason, as may be observed at the present day, and at the same time manifesting such emotional signs as pride, shame, deceitfulness, passionateness, cruelty, and ludicrousness, which places them on an intellectual par with the infant of less than a year old.

In the later Meiocene age we have anthropoid apes, which may be placed on a level with one-year-old infants, and from which evolved apes of a higher order, which acquired the faculty of articulation, and, afterwards becoming more human, the knowledge of the use of simple instruments, thus reaching the intellectual level of the child of fifteen months old. As the apes became more and more human in the later Meiocene and early Pleistocene ages, they gradually acquired the faculty of acting in concert and of speech; and when, having arrived at that stage of development in which they partook more of the character of savage man than human ape, judgment, recollection, self-consciousness, and, lastly, definite morality manifested themselves, thus raising the ape-like man to the level of the child of two and a half years. In the lowest savages of to-day, as well as in the old descendants of the ape-like men, superstition developed to a large extent at the same time that the emotional unfolding proceeded in the direction of avarice, envy, hate, hope, vanity, mirth, a love of the beautiful, and afterwards art appreciation, awe, reverence, remorse, courtesy, melancholy, and ecstasy, precisely as with the child of from five to ten years of age. As the race improved, becoming in turn semi-savage, semi-civilised, civilised, and cultured, the intellectual powers, of course, developed similarly, until, at the present day, we find men possessed of the most wonderful mental grandeur, we might almost say, conceivable. But this would be saying too much, for we must not forget that, just as evolution has continued in the past from eternity, so will it continue in the future to eternity; and who can tell to what heights the human mind may soar in the future?

Lofty as is the human intellect at the present time, as compared with the mental powers of those we have left far behind in the march of evolution, it is yet very far from being able to grasp many of the great problems of the universe, such as that of existence. Perhaps at some future time, in millions of ages to come, these great questions may be answered; but at present we know they baffle the wisest men, and continually remind us of the finite and limited character of our intellectual faculties.

This comparison of the mental development of the individual with that of the whole race is extremely interesting, and provides ample material for thought. By such comparison, and by it alone, can the science of psychology ever be based on a sure and enduring foundation. It is all very well for theologians and other biased people to declare that animal intelligence has nothing in common with the reasoning powers of man; but let them honestly look at the facts as they are, thanks to the indefatigable energy and indomitable perseverance of lovers of science and truth, now presented to us. Candid observers cannot fail to notice that the difference between the intelligence of man and that of the lower animals is one only of degree, and not of kind. When we see the order of sequence being followed in the development of the individual so like that of the whole race, not only as regards the bodily structure, but also as regards the mental functions, can we help arriving at the conclusion that the one is but the epitome of the other, and that the superior intellect of man is but a higher development of the so-called instincts of the lower animals? Have we not at the present day, among members of the human family itself, various degrees of intelligence, from the almost barren brains of the lowest races of savages to the brilliant mental achievements of a Newton or a Spencer?

It is beyond doubt that the intellectual superiority of civilised man over his savage brethren is due to the greater multiplicity of his objects of thought, and it follows that savage man’s intellectual superiority over the lower animals is due to the same cause. The actions of both have the same aim—viz., the supplying of the wants of the physical nature and the gratifying of the desires aroused in the mind. It is frequently asserted that man differs from the lower animals in possessing the power of reflection; but this I hold to be an exploded argument, and at variance with all recent teaching. Dogs, elephants, and monkeys most certainly possess the faculty of reflection, and it is not difficult to find races belonging to the human family whose powers of reflection transcend hardly in the least degree those possessed by the higher apes; while the difference between the reflective capacity of the lowest savage, which is of the simplest conceivable kind, and that of the civilised European, which has developed into genius, is enormous. Then, again, it is often said that only man is emotional; but one need only have an ordinary acquaintanceship with domestic animals to at once see the absurdity of this argument, for dogs are frequently observed to laugh, to cry, to express joy and gratitude by their actions, and to betray feelings of shame and remorse; while horses and elephants have been observed to punish their cruel keepers in the most cunning manner and then to laugh at the poor fellows’ discomfiture. As to the “conscience argument,” so frequently brought forward, by religionists especially, all I have to say here is that conscience, or the knowledge of the distinction between right and wrong, is not an inherent quality of the human mind, being merely a result of the operation of the reflective faculty aided by experience, as is quite evident from the fact that the ideas of morality vary according to the age in which we live. The same may be said about the greatest of all the arguments against evolution—viz., that of language; for, just as conscience is but a product of reflection and experience, so is language also. It is a mistake to imagine that the power of speech is possessed by man alone, and that his language differs altogether from the cries and signals of the lower animals, for such is not the case. Many animals possess the faculty of speech, and human language differs from that of the lower animals only in its degree of development, and in no sense in its origin. Probably all language originated in interjection, or the “instinctive expression of the subjective impressions derived from external nature,” as Mr. Farrar puts it. And, just as the reflective powers of the race were developed and shone more brilliantly as each stage in the evolutionary march of intellect was passed, so did language pass from the simple monosyllabic cries to the complex dialects of modern civilisation; and it is worthy of notice that, at the present day, or at any rate very recently, there were races of savage men inhabiting this earth who possessed no language at all, and could not, on account of their mode of living, be placed on a higher intellectual level than the higher apes; while we have the authority of the leading philologists of the times in support of the fact that the monosyllabic cries of some of the lower human tribes are quite within the grasp of the ape’s voice.

Human beings have been discovered in wild and hitherto unexplored regions who have not the remotest idea of what we should term civilisation. They lead a wandering and useless life, sleeping at nights, not in huts, nor in caves, but squatting among the branches of tall trees, where they are placed out of the reach of savage animals. They do not appear capable of expressing their thoughts in sentences, but make use of exclamatory grunts, which serve the purposes of speech quite sufficiently for their limited requirements; and their general appearance approaches to a remarkable extent that of the higher apes, in that they are almost completely covered with hair, possess a dirty brown skin, short legs, long arms, and full abdomens, can pick up stones, sticks, etc., with their toes as well as their fingers, and show few if any signs of intellectual powers. Let any one visit the Zoological Gardens, in London, and carefully observe the apes exhibited there, and then say whether there is a vast difference between some of them and the human beings who answer to the above description. One need but visit the travelling menagerie of Messrs. Edmunds, and view their “missing link,” an excellent sample of the chimpanzee troglodyte, to see that the difference between man and the lower animals is one only of degree, quite as much as regards intellect as bodily form. I once saw exhibited in the Jardin d’Acclimatation, in Paris, a lot of Patagonian or Fuegan (I forget which) natives, who were very little superior intellectually to the chimpanzee. They were stark naked, in a wretchedly dirty condition, and appeared quite incapable of anything like sustained mental effort. But these are by no means the lowest among the human species.

In conclusion, I need only re-state my opinion that all so-called living things are but products of the development of protoplasm, whether belonging to the animal or vegetable kingdoms; that this protoplasm possesses the property of vitality, or the power of perceiving stimuli of various kinds and responding to them by definite movements; that the phenomena of mind are but functional manifestations of this protoplasmic development; and that the highest intellectual product of the human mind exists and has existed from eternity in a state of latent potentiality in every atom of protoplasm, as well as in every particle of matter in the universe.

THE SPECIAL SENSES.

According to the now almost universally (that is, among educated scientific people) accepted theory of Evolution, each living being upon this earth is a result of a very slow process of development, which commenced with a low form of life many millions of years ago, and has since been operating continuously, becoming more and more complex, and imperceptibly attaining greater perfection as each fresh stage was accomplished. From the homogeneous to the heterogeneous, from inorganic to organic, from Amœba to man, the evolutionary development has slowly, steadily, and surely advanced step by step, in obedience to certain well-defined laws. Yet it is impossible to discern in this slow process of evolution any well-marked difference between one particular species and the next of kin, although the difference becomes clearly apparent if we take two species separated from each other by considerable time; just as it is impossible to detect any alteration in form and feature between a child of six days old and the same child of seven days old, while the change is very evident after the lapse of several weeks or months. If we were to photograph a human being regularly each day from the moment of its birth to the time of its decease at the age of eighty, we should be unable to detect any real difference between the portraits on any two consecutive days; but the difference between the child of a week old and the young man of twenty years would be enormous, as would be that between the full-grown youth and the tottering old man. As the human individual in its earliest condition of existence is not possessed of the same faculties as it afterwards enjoys as a more perfect development, so, in like manner, the species in its primal condition was wanting in the loftier qualities now possessed by the higher animals, such as consciousness, sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch, all of which have been gradually evolved as the various life-forms developed from lower and more simple to higher and more complex kind. For instance, at a very early period of man’s individual existence he possessed no brain, eyes, ears, mouth, or nose, and, therefore, was quite incapable of mentating, seeing, hearing, tasting, or smelling; but, as the organism very gradually developed into a higher and more complex kind, these various organs manifested themselves, and slowly arrived at such perfection as we find in the human infant at birth. Precisely so was it with the race. The lowly Moneron was of homogeneous structure, possessing neither parts nor kind, but gradually differentiating into nucleus and cell; its descendants, the Gastrœada, becoming possessed, by a process of invagination, of an external layer of nucleated cells and an internal and more delicate layer, thus forming a hollow organism, or Gastrula. This external cellular integument was the original sense-organ of the animal kingdom, from which developed the organs of special sense. Though without nerve and special sense-organs, yet these little hollow Gastrœada, and, in fact, their ancestors, the Amœbæ, which consisted of simple protoplasmic cells, each enclosing a nucleus, were possessed with sensory perception, being influenced by light, and by variations of pressure and temperature. As the evolutionary process continued, and the animal kingdom assumed higher forms, the original epidermal general sense-organ became converted into several special organs of sense, each specialisation commencing with a simple depression upon the integument of the organism; numerous little epidermal nerves of perception were formed, which could perceive changes of pressure and of temperature, and some of which gradually became enabled to understand particular influences affecting them, such as those produced by a strong odour, light-waves, and sound-waves. By adaptation, the extremities of these sense-nerves became expanded and enlarged, so as to enable them the better to understand the particular influences; and this expansion was accompanied by a corresponding depression on the integument, which cup-like formation afterwards became converted into an eye, or other organ of special sense, very imperfect in the invertebrate forms of life, imperfect in the fish, more perfect in the amphibian, and still more perfect in the mammal forms, such as apes and men. In short, the life-history of the individual is an exact counterpart in miniature of the life-history of the species up to the particular point reached by the particular individual.

The order and mode of development is precisely the same in all animal organisms, and may be conveniently studied by placing a hen’s egg in an incubating machine, and carefully watching it for the space of three weeks. It will be observed that the eye, ear, nose, and mouth are not present at the commencement of the process, but make their appearance later on, about the third or fourth day of incubation, as tiny depressions on the integument, from which condition they gradually develop into perfect organs of special sense, as possessed by the full-grown chicken; the eyes, which receive the impressions caused by light-waves; the ears, which receive those made by sound-waves; the nose, by which odours are discerned; the mouth, which holds the taste-organ; and the skin, which remains the organ of touch and perception of temperature. Now, when we consider for a moment these wonderful phenomena, we cannot help being struck by the remarkable manner in which the animal kingdom has been slowly and steadily progressing towards perfection, in spite of the enormous physical difficulties encountered; and we cannot help coming to the conclusion that, inasmuch as there was once a time when no animal existed having eyes, ears, nose, or mouth, and, still later, a period when these special sense-organs existed in a very imperfect condition, it is highly probable that in the future ages man, who now possesses special senses of a high order, will acquire even still more highly-developed faculties.

In congratulating ourselves upon the advance made by our own particular species over other members of the animal kingdom, we must never forget that, although we can mentate, see, hear, smell, taste, and feel, while myriads of our lowly brethren can do none of these, we yet are incapable of solving the mighty problems of the universe with any or all of these organs without artificial aid. No man on earth has ever yet been able to solve the mighty problem of existence, in spite of his great intellectual powers. No man has ever yet been able to see a millionth part of the wonders in the heavens above, or in the earth beneath, with his own unaided eye; but with the telescope and microscope new worlds have been opened out to him. We are as yet, undoubtedly, in but a transitory condition, the victims of an imperfect organisation, subject to a partially-developed brain and nervous system, and to five imperfect special senses. We must accept the situation philosophically, and without grumbling, and do our best to make good use of the senses we have, and leave the solution of problems we are unable to solve to future races of men, who will be possessed of better materials with which to operate.

“THE SUPREME SPIRIT IN THE ACT OF CREATION
BECAME BY VOGA, TWO-FOLD, THE RIGHT SIDE WAS MALE,
THE LEFT WAS PRAKRITI.” (Brahma Vaivartta Puranu.)

BRAHM
THE HINDU ANDROGYNOUS CREATOR
Copied from Inman’s “Ancient Faiths”.