Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1878-10-11

storm would still be brewed Of wind and rain
and thunder
II is our boon, the speaker said, to grapple
with the greatest problem that ever engaged
| the thoughts of man. by what modes did
the Divine Will encrgize in the creation -
He showed that while things reproduce after
/ their kind they do not reproduce cruelty after
| their kind. As inorganic nature changes The
organism must change responsive There is
another factor. It is hunger. Mouths are
many, morsels few. There results prodig-
| ious fecundity and prodigious destruction.
"The whole creation groanoth aud travaileth
| in pain" We are warned against putting new
wine into old bottles, but here is an old bot
tie would hold all the wine of modern
science. What is born of such travail? Pain
is put ever more at the portals Of life In
this struggle for life are the birth throes
of species. We project our thought back in
to the globes hardening youth. Suppose
that Nature had been conscious and vocal.
| She might have said, Having waited through
80 many icons of shimmoring mist and burn
ing sun, at last have a crust of rock. II is my
fnality. will guard it," Then to-day she
would be nothing but barren shard of CLASSY
rock. That is not Natures method She has
no fnality. Having gained rock she COM
missions all her elements to destroy it, and
| from the Obraded fragments she goes on to
mako other rocks. We project our thoughts
into the globes morning of life. II con
scious and vocal, Nature might now have said,
Having waited through so many ICONS of
nebula and sun and barren rock and steam
! ingocean, now, atlast, havelifc. Itismy fnali-
ty. will guardit as the apple Of Inyeye." Then
to-day the world might have held nothing
higher than the senseless Jelly But the
methods Of creation are the same on the or
ganic as ON the inorganic side. Whom lie
loyeth lie chasteneth."
The speaker showed 10y chalk delineatons
how the "Life-Dawn" animal most probably
changed as the sea on whose bed it slumbered
changed. He sketched the earliest fish, which
had q "Reminiscences Of the crustaceous, the
earliest reptiles, which carried an heirloom
from the fish, and the earliest bird, which was
part reptile. He drew then the earliest known
mammal 1t roamed the low plains border
! ing the Pacific ocean. lie described the new
born California and Oregon and Nevada and
| lHeif earliest mammal. tue oNLthtOiOH. It's
brain was small, its senses blunt, its motions
sluggish. From that primitive mammal lie
sketchod a series leading, by slight changes,
generation after generation, to the horse an
other series leading to tie tiger, another to
the Illuminating OK, and another to the arboreal
ape. He showed by drawings on the canvas
how these changes were occurring and how
they were brought about. From bathmodon
to horse the Pacific coast of North America
has afforded - intermediate links. All the
great orders of life the world over seem to
have started on the Pacific coast of North
America.
Creation has been progress, but not always.
A census of the animal kingdom would show
that great many orders had suffered degra-
dation. The speaker sketched this process
and showed that all parasites have lapsed
from a higher state. When an insect begins
to prefer lis legs to its wings its fall toward
par7lsitism begins What becomes of man
when he prefers lis legs to his wings? lis
a fearful gospel of retribution Nature thun-
ders into the ears of men
The next lecture will be given on Wednes-
day evening of next week. Subject The
Origin of Man"