gossip. Closely associated with this propensity to protect ourselves by imitation is the universality of the sentiment of fear. Only by the supremest power of reason do we overcome an instinctive terror of individual separation from others; a fear inherited from the whole realm below us.

When we have fully grasped the fact that mimicry is a universal law or tendency, and does not simply cover a few curious cases in Nature, we shall hardly be able to escape the conviction that it is an evolutionary tendency, and not the result of a creative fiat. There is no evidence of any other God being present in these operations of Nature than the omnipresent intelligence, or something broader, higher, fuller than intelligence, that fills Nature every moment. Unintelligent Nature is undiscoverable. Intelligence there is, and purpose, but it is not a purpose that does not run unbroken through the whole of space and all of time. You do not need that I shall remind you that I do not suppose that life and all the curious phenomena of life are explained by simply saying Nature does it, or it is a law of Nature. Who or what is Nature? While mimicry plainly argues against a Designer who set the world in order, that which is involved in mimicry is evidently a universal life. In my judgment it is as impossible to conceive of Nature apart from universal mind as it is to conceive a mind apart from Nature. We, and all about us, are palpably not the designs of a designer who is alien to us, but of a power of which we ourselves partake. I can not comprehend the subtle unifying power which is really the essential myself. Neither do I clearly grasp the unifying purpose and potency in all the cosmos; but as I am clearly a unit, a self, an undivided substantiality, so there clearly is a unity involving all that was, that is, or will be-for you can not conceive consequences that are not contained in causes. So, when we speak of Nature, of which these birds, bees, butterflies, walking-sticks, and flowers are fragments, it is plain that they are parts not only of a material unity, but of a unity

of another sort-a unity in which is involved intelligent will, or something which is both intelligence and larger than intelligence, of which intelligence is a phenomenon ; which covers a gamut in which intelligence above, and sensation below, are but upper and lower chords of a divine harmony—an infinite Unity blending into Moral Purpose.

LECTURE VIII.

DEGENERATION.

EVOLUTION Shows us that from the beginnings of life on the earth there has been a general tendency from the lower to the higher in the way of organism and function. In higher evolution, progress in the organic form has also involved advance in cunning and wit. There has been a steady elimination of small brains and dull brains in favor of large brains and fine ones. The horse is a biggerbrained creature than its two-toed or its three-toed ancestor. But think how long it took Nature to carry out her purpose of building a horse. It was not done in a day, or in an age. It was in process through the whole of the Tertiary period, or at least five millions of years.

It need not surprise us that meanwhile some forms, and probably many, not only failed of sustaining themselves in any line of development, but have either dropped out, or have taken aberrant courses, degenerating in form and habits. The non-fittest have not in all cases failed to sur

vive.

Hugh Miller undertook to construct paleontology on the theory that each creative day, six in number, began with the placing on the earth of fresh and perfectly formed creatures; but that each day closed with such types deteriorated into deformity. I need not say that Mr. Miller's anxiety to make geology and Moses tell the same story, in the same way, led him astray. There is no such record of

life-history, except in the imagination of the religious enthusiast; still the fact of degeneration in evolution can not be overlooked. This is the result of either unfavoring conditions, leading to the retardation of growth of vital parts of the organism, or of those conditions that favor a lack of effect and use. Growth, in the way of progressive evolution, depends on the struggle for existence, requiring the constant effort to attain powers, and thus the systematic use of attained powers. But when non-use sets in, not only are the organs lost, but the functional tendency is lost. A fish in a cavern first loses sight, then the purposive effort that led to organic vision and sustained it, and finally the organ of vision itself. In other words, that potency and effort which first led to the eye is no longer put forth, and the creature is so far degenerating. I shall most readily illustrate this lecture from human analogy, and shall therefore so use our knowledge of human actions and character as to throw a light on cases analogous and parallel.

The first condition of degeneration is not reversion, but perversion of aim. The evil man does not go back on the line of his animal heredity, but turns aside into paths that are neither human nor animal. The physical structure that ceases to make progress oscillates for a time about a point, and then moves off toward some degraded condition. Here its existence depends on environments that favor its degraded nature. If afterward these are removed, it can not readjust itself to higher purpose, but must perish in its shame. The law of life is progress; the law of degeneration is ultimate elimination. This law again is precisely parallel to the higher law that governs moral life; the gift of God is eternal living, but the wages of sin is death. So you see that in the vast differencing of forces it grows more and more probable that there shall be a temporary survival of the unfit. The cunning that takes advantage of circumstances, discovers methods of subsist

ing on others, and so becomes attached in the way of a parasite.

Nowhere in nature has there been as much parasitic life as among human beings. It takes a large degree of wit to live idly, and off your neighbor's industry. But some vegetables learned to do this before man did it; and many animals have done the same. The result has been degeneration, loss of structure, loss of faculty, and, as a rule, final helplessness and degeneration of the whole being. The comparison is very striking between a human hanger-on and a parasitic creature, that all his life clings to some other organism, sucking the life out of it. You never saw such a person who did not lose self-respect, manly features, sound judgment, and ability to exercise his remaining faculties to advantage. The man and the insect are alike fitted to less complex relations in life.

The hermit-crab is one of the best-known instances of degeneration. It has adopted the plan of seizing upon the cast-off shell of some other creature, or driving out a weaker neighbor to secure his domicile. It has now lost the power belonging to all the crab family to develop a shell; only over its abdominal parts there is the thin vestige of what should be such a covering. Then, to fit it to its stolen residence, its fourth and fifth pairs of limbs are aborted, and its tail is drawn out a bit.

But the hermit-crab is itself in turn infested with a parasite. This creature, when born, is an active reputable animal having three pairs of legs, one eye, and no mouth. By and by it develops a shell, then it loses two legs, and gets six pairs of swimming feet. Its fore-legs grow into long suckers with which it intends to begin its bad practices. As soon as possible it attaches these organs to the hermit-crab. Then it kicks off its swimming feet, and the body swells out into a baggy shape, a perfect picture of a lazy-belly that is living off society, and cares only to eat and to drink. The family of which this creature is a