It Was A Profound Saying Of Wilhelm

The Ordinary Naturalist Is Not Sufficiently Aware That When Dogmatizing On What Species Are, He Is Grappling With The Whole Question Of The Organic World & Its Connection With The Time Past & With Man; That It Involves The Question Of Man & His Relation To The Brutes, Of Instinct, Intelligence & Reason, Of Creation, Transmutation & Progressive Improvement Or Development. Each Set Of Geological Questions & Of Ethnological & Zool. & Botan. Are Parts Of The Great Problem Which Is Always Assuming A New Aspect.

Amidst The Vicissitudes Of The Earth's Surface, Species Cannot Be Immortal, But Must Perish, One After Another, Like The Individuals Which Compose Them. There Is No Possibility Of Escaping From This Conclusion.

I May Conclude This Chapter By Quoting A Saying Of Professor Agassiz, That Whenever A New And Startling Fact Is Brought To Light In Science, People First Say, 'it Is Not True,' Then That 'it Is Contrary To Religion,' And Lastly, 'that Everybody Knew It Before.'

'time's Noblest Offspring Is The Last.' This Line Of Bishop Berkeley's Expresses The Real Cause Of The Belief In Progress In The Animal Creation.

Millions Of Our Race Are Now Supported By Lands Situated Where Deep Seas Once Prevailed In Earlier Ages. In Many Districts Not Yet Occupied By Man, Land Animals And Forests Now Abound Where The Anchor Once Sank Into The Oozy Bottom.