equally a part of one great nervous system, where "each manifestation of force can be interpreted only as the effect of some antecedent force." The difference between the lowest and the highest animal is one of degree, not of kind; and the essential differences that man creates have no real existence, but are entirely the creations of his own mind, that is, are purely subjective. "Matter and law have devoured spirit and spontaneity. And as sure as every future grows out of every past and present, so will the physiology of the future gradually extend the realm of matter and law until it is co-extensive with knowledge, with feeling, and with action. For after all, what do we know of this terrible matter,'* except as a

66

*

*

* On this subject we would refer the more curious reader to "The Mystery of Being; or are Ultimate Atoms Inhabited Worlds?" By Nicholas Odgers. Redwith and London. 1868. 8vo. Also to Spectrum Analysis." Six Lectures delivered in 1868 before the Society of Apothecaries, London. By H. E. Roscoe, F.R.S. Macmillan and Co. Mr. Roscoe shows that by the Spectroscope we are able to detect the eighteen millionth part of a grain of sodium in a room; to determine the constituent elements of stars so remote that light, which travels some 180,000 miles a second, requires more than 100 years to reach us from them; and to note the velocity with which a storm is passing over the surface of the sun. See also "The Principles of Psychology," by Herbert Spencer, p. 617, etc. He says, "What is the constitution of this seemingly-simple matter, which thus tells of things near and remote that remain otherwise unknown? In the minutest visible fragment of it there are millions of units severally oscillating with unimaginable speed; and physicists show us that the amplitudes of their oscillations vary from moment to moment, according as the temperatures of surrounding objects vary. Nay, much more than this is now inferable. Each unit is not simple but compound-not a single thing but a system of things. Spectrum-analysis has made it manifest that every molecule of this so-called elementary substance is a cluster of minor molecules differing in their weights and rhythms. Such being the complexity of matters we lately thought simple, judge what is the complexity of matters we knew as compounds. In each molecule of an oxide or an acid, the chemist sees one of those systems united with one, two,

C

name for the unknown and hypothetical cause of states of our own consciousness? And what do we know of that "spirit" over whose threatened extinction by matter a great lamentation is arising like that which was heard at the death of Pan, except that it is also a name for an unknown and hypothetical cause, or condition, of states of consciousness? In other words, matter and spirit are but names for the imaginary substrata of groups of natural phenomena." *

three, or more systems of another kind that are similarly involved. Ascending to orders of compounds successively more heterogeneous, he finds himself obliged to recognise molecular complexities unrepresentable in thought; until, in reaching organic matter, he comes to molecules each of which (taking into account the composite nature of its so-called elements) contains literally more atoms than the visible heaven contains stars-atoms combined, system within system, in such ways that each atom, each system, each compound system, each doubly-compound system, has its motion in relation to the rest, and is capable of perturbing the rest and of being perturbed by them; * * * and molecules of each kind are specially affected by molecules of the same kind existing in the farthest regions of space. Units of sodium on which sunlight falls beat in unison with their kindred units more than 90 millions of miles off, by which the yellow rays of the sun are produced."

* Huxley "On the Physical Basis of Life."

CHAPTER II.

MAN.

Ir has been calculated that life began on this earth at least some 100 millions of years ago, while man is supposed to have lived here only 100,000 years. Professor Huxley, a great authority on this subject, says: "The first traces of the primordial stock whence man has proceeded need no longer be sought by those who entertain any form of the doctrine of progressive development in the newest tertiaries; but they may be looked for in an epoch more distant from the age of the Elephas primigenius than that is from

us."

Now how far it is exactly "from everlasting to everlasting" we do not know, and perhaps it would not be much less difficult to settle exactly the period here indicated-geological periods meaning only before or after certain occurrences; but we do know that millions of years before man appeared creatures lived on this earth which exhibited most of the mental phenomena displayed by him. They may not have been quite so pretty, judged by our standard of beauty,* but they were equally fond of their wives and families and friends,

* The inhabitants of the sea depart most from our type; the walrus, the norwal, the sea devil, or the cuttle fish are certainly not beautiful. But beauty is purely subjective, and even the female toad has her lovers and admirers, who are so ardent in their affections that Dr. Günter says he has often found the lady toad dead and smothered from their too close kisses and embraces. * * In fact, there is no accounting for taste, either in sight or sound. Darwin says: "It is a curious fact that in the same class of animals, sounds so different as the drumming of the snipe's tail, the tapping of the woodpecker's beak, the harsh trumpet-like cry of certain water-fowl, the cooing of the turtle-dove, and the song of the nightingale, should all be pleasing to the females of the several species." ("Descent of Man," vol. 2, pp. 26, 67.)

and equally provided for their support and comfort; they feasted and fought, and crowed and blustered, and spread their tails to be admired, just as men and women do now; and really, when we come to compare an Australian Savage with Horses, Dogs, and Elephants, it is the animals, we are almost inclined to think, that ought to be ashamed to own the relationship. With reference to the vast superiority upon which man prides himself, and how infinitely ridiculous he makes himself in his self-importance, we should listen to the great philosopher, Michael Faraday :-"What a weak, credulous, incredulous, unbelieving, superstitious, bold, frightened—what a ridiculons world ours is, as far as concerns the mind of man! How full of inconsistencies, contradictions, and absurdities. I declare that taking the average of many minds that have recently come before me (and apart from that spirit which God has placed in each), and accepting for a moment that average as a standard, I should far prefer the obedience, affection, and instinct of a dog before it." And who does not recollect Byron's beautiful lines:

When some proud son of man returns to earth,
Unknown to glory, but upheld by birth,
The Sculptor's art exhausts the pomp of woe,
And storied urns record who rests below;

When all is done, upon the tomb is seen,

Not what he was, but what he should have been :
But the poor dog, in life the firmest friend,
The first to welcome, the foremost to defend,
Whose honest heart is still his master's own,
Who labours, fights, lives, breathes for him alone,
Unhonour'd falls, unnoticed all his worth,
Denied in heaven the soul he held on earth :
While man, vain insect! hopes to be forgiven,
And claims himself a sole exclusive heaven.

Faraday is speaking of the Caucasian race, and not of the Mongolian, Malay, Negro, and Aboriginal American races,

which at present, perhaps, comprehend five-sixths of mankind

But he who feels contempt

For any living thing, hath faculties
That he has never used,

The other sixth, the Caucasian, is much the highest type, and admits of a high degree of civilisation; and other races had probably existed on this earth many thousands of years before the yellow hair and white faces made their appearance. The most civilised claim, as Christians, the particular privilege of eternal damnation for the great majority; but we think it will be found that even they are not worth it, and that the whole plan of Creation will not be altered to suit the exigencies of their peculiar creed.

At present we have no data for fixing exactly the period of man's first appearance in the world. The Nile deposits, from which pottery has been brought up from a depth of 60 feet, and red brick from a depth of 72 feet, are calculated to represent 41,300 years, and it would be an awful bore, representing thousands of centuries, to get to the bottom of these deposits. No one has yet attempted to fix the precise date of the much-talked-of stone, or bronze periods, or of the lake dwellings; and fossil remains at present furnish very little that is definite as to time. Sir Charles Lyell is of opinion that the Engis Skull found in a cave in the valley of the Meuse is of the same age as the Mammoth and the Woolly Rhinoceros. The Neanderthal Skull is also said to belong to the same period, but no one has told us how long that is ago. In the time of flint axes and arrow heads the skulls found are small and round, with large ridges over the eyes The race was small, and, it is believed, resembled the Lapps of the present day. In the bronze age the skulls were larger and longer. The skulls of the Egyptians, preserved in their tombs and temples, closely resemble the European, but are of smaller size.