and showed in their structure a synthesis of features belonging to each of the four classes of vertebrates.

The dawn of a new dominant idea in Nature is often foreshadowed by penumbral types of an anticipatory character. The earliest representatives of a comprehensive type were generally prophetic. Before reptiles were created, hints of coming reptiles were dropped in the constitution of the fishes, as in the concavo-convex vertebræ of the Ganoids. The winged bird was foreshadowed by the flying and feathered reptiles; and mammals were heralded by the whale-like and paddle-bearing Ichthyosaurs. What but prophetic types were all the first-formed creatures belonging to the four grand categories of structure, from which have been developed the diversified beings of after ages? All possibilities of vertebrate existence were folded up in the constitution of the first fish which Omnipotence called into being. In the organization of those primordial Trilobites which figure in the vignette of animal history were wrapped up in potentiality all the species which creative power has since evolved from the articulate type― lobsters, barnacles, centipedes, spiders, butterflies, beetles. These forms were all in full view of the Intelligence which executed the plan that involved them, and which, in its destined unfolding, must set them free upon the earth.

Most impressive are the facts which show the ideas of the far-off coming ages wandering in advance of their time. among the creations of an existing world, like streaks of morning light which herald the approaching sun through all the sky, while the world still sleeps under the reign of darkness. It is as if the thoughts of the Creator were busied with the plans of the distant future, while his hands are occupied with the work of to-day. Thus were incorporated in the organisms of one age hints of the features which were to blossom and unfold in the dominant ideas

of the following one. Thus grew into being those "prophetic types" which show that One Intelligence has ordered creation-an intelligence to which the past and the future are both present. Here are relations of thought which proclaim in the ears of all men that chance has never swayed the sceptre of the world, and that unthinking and blind material force has only been the servant of an Intelligent Will.

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Hardly less interesting are the phenomena of retrospective types. These lie on the vanishing side of the eclipse. They are the last shadows cast by a type whose central passage was ages ago. The "garpike” or billfish" of our Western waters is a notable example of retrospective types. Some geological cycles since, the garpikes were the monarch-occupants of the waters of the earth. Helmeted and mailed in impenetrable armor, they were secure from the attacks of the most formidable foes. With jaws armed with triple rows of sharp and conical teeth, and endowed with the power of darting like an arrow through the water, there was no contemporary too swift to capture or too powerful to destroy. The meridian of this dynasty was in the Mesozoic ages. From that time its power has continued to wane; and in the present age, so far as shown by the published records of science, only the Polypterus of the Nile and Senegal Rivers, and the Lepidosteus of North American waters, survive to represent the prestige, and glory, and prowess of a reign which was once inexorable and universal. We may look upon the "billfish” of our rivers and lakes with a veneration infinitely more exalted than any belonging to the survivors of the decaying dynasties of human history. Here are the relics of empires in which the Almighty Will has wrought its own purposes; on the other hand are the ruins of fabrics built and defended at the cost of human liberty and human blood, in

which human license for a time has been suffered to wrestle against the Almighty Will.

Equally profound is the lesson taught by the Pentacrinus of the Caribbean Sea, for it stands there the sole survivor of the Crinoids of the Paleozoic world. A delicate stony stem, affixed to the submarine soil, bears upon its summit a symmetrical cup or body, around the margin of which are supported the five stony arms which ramify into scores of fingers. The whole structure is composed of many thousands of little stony pieces, many of them handsomely sculptured, and all fitted together with mathematical precision. Dr. Buckland demonstrated that the number of separate pieces in a fossil Pentacrinus was more than 150,000, while M. de Koninck calculated that an adult specimen of the same species (Pentacrinus Briareus) was composed of not less than 615,000 separate pieces. Strange that a type so remarkable in its characteristics should persist, in a single representative, so many ages after the period to which it was assigned, to play its part in the wonderful drama of life!

The Trilobites have long since ceased to exist; but afar off, in the Antarctic, science has brought to light a curious Crustacean (Glyptonotus Antarcticus), which strongly recalls the extinct form of the Trilobite, as if Nature fondly cherished the reminiscences of her youth. The Araucaria imbricata of Chili is, in like manner, a souvenir of the Conifers of the Coal Period, as the Chinese Salisburia is of its Sigillarians and Ferns.

Thus, on a review of the history of organic life, we are enabled to draw forth its manifold lessons. We learn that the marshaling of its forms is not in such an order as to justify the fascinating doctrine of genealogical succession, as taught by De Maillet, St. Hilaire, Lamarck, Darwin, Spencer, and others. Still, we learn that order has exist

ed, and that Nature's history may be expressed in formulas. We recognize a bond of thought running through the whole length of creation, and feel the assurance that a Higher Power than physical forces has presided over the evolution of the material world.

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CHAPTER XXIX.

WORLD THOUGHTS.

ET us trace these world-thoughts further. We shall find the same story thrice-recorded.

Every body knows that the domestic dog outranks the ox, while he is himself outranked by the chimpanzee. Still lower than the ox in rank is that aquatic mammal, the whale, which to every judgment seems just on the separating line between mammals and fishes, while higher than the chimpanzee, both in his organization and his intelligence, is the being, Man. These several forms belong all to the class of mammals, and represent so many orders of that class. Each class of the animal kingdom is composed of different grades of creatures, which mark the different orders of the class. The criteria by which we determine relative rank amongst animals are various. Within the limits of a class, superiority of rank is denoted by aerial respiration, and inferiority by aquatic respiration. Correspondingly, merely aquatic habits, even with aerial respiration, as in whales, show that the affinities are downward. Even the endowment of wings marks a grade below those forms fitted to travel on the surface of the solid earth. Then, again, a multiplication of similar parts denotes inferiority, as is illustrated by the fact that some of the marsupial quadrupeds of Australia possess fifty-four teeth, and some dolphins one hundred and ninety, while the typical number for mammals is forty-four. Thus, also, insects have but six legs, while their inferiors, the spiders, have eight, and myriapods an indefinite number. Inferiority is equal