| → relative, though not actual lapse of 1872 |
| lapse of actual 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869 |
|
| ↑ 2 blocks not present in 1872; present in 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869 |
| During early periods of the earth's
history, when the forms of life were probably fewer and simpler, the rate of change was probably slower; and at the first dawn of life, when very few forms of the simplest structure existed, the rate of change may have been slow in an extreme degree.
The whole
history of the world, as at present known, although of a
length
quite incomprehensible by us,
will hereafter be recognised as a mere fragment of time,
compared with the ages which have
elapsed since the first creature,
the progenitor
of innumerable extinct and living descendants, was created.
|
|
| → securely based on the foundation already well laid by Mr. Herbert Spencer, 1872 |
| based on a new foundation, 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869 |
|
| → within each class, which 1861 1866 1869 1872 |
| which 1859 1860 |
|
|
conditions, namely, the mutual relation of organism to organism,— the improvement of one
entailing the improvement or the extermination of others; it follows, that the amount of organic change in the fossils of consecutive formations probably serves as a fair measure of the
→relative, though not actual lapse of
time. A number of species, however, keeping in a body might remain for a long period unchanged, whilst within
same period, several of these species, by migrating into new countries and coming into competition with foreign associates, might become modified; so that we must not overrate the accuracy of organic change as a measure of time. ↑
|
|
| In the
future I see open fields for far more important researches. Psychology will be
→securely based on the foundation already well laid by Mr. Herbert Spencer,
that of the necessary acquirement of each mental power and capacity by gradation.
will be thrown on the origin of man and his history. |
|
| Authors of the highest eminence seem to be fully satisfied with the view that each species has been independently created. To my mind it accords better with what we know of the laws impressed on matter by the Creator, that the production and extinction of the past and present inhabitants of the world should have been due to secondary causes, like those determining the birth and death of the individual. When I view all beings not as special creations, but as the lineal descendants of some few beings which lived long before the first bed of the
system was deposited, they seem to me to become ennobled. Judging from the past, we may safely infer that not one living species will transmit its unaltered likeness to a distant futurity. And of the species now living very few will transmit progeny of any kind to a far distant futurity; for the manner in which all organic beings are grouped, shows that the greater number of species
each genus, and all the species
many genera, have left no descendants, but have become utterly extinct. We can so far take a prophetic glance into futurity as to
that it will be the common and widely-spread species, belonging to the larger and dominant
→within each class, which
will ultimately prevail and procreate new and dominant species. As all the living forms of life are the lineal descendants of those which lived long before the
epoch, we may feel certain that the ordinary succession by generation has never once been broken, and that no cataclysm has desolated the whole world. Hence we may look with some confidence to a secure future of
length. And as natural selection works solely by and for the good of each being, all
and mental endowments will tend to progress towards perfection.
|
