256 FISHES

living, or that ever have lived, are united together by
blood relationship of varying nearness or remoteness;
and every animal now in existence has a pedigree
stretching back, not merely for ten or a hundred
generations, but through all geologic time since life
first commenced on the earth. The study of develop-
ment has revealed to us that each animal bears the
mark of its ancestry, and is compelled to discover its
parentage in its own development; the phases through
which an animal passes in its progress from the egg
to the adult are no accidental freaks—no mere matters
of developmental convenience, but represent more
or less closely, in more or less modified manner, the
successive ancestral stages through which the present
condition has been acquired.’

But, seek as we may, there will remain the inevi-
table Unknown, and in all, through all, and over all,
the manifestation of that Overruling Intelligence,
unresting from everlasting to everlasting, of Him of
whom it is said :—

‘He sendeth forth springs into the valleys ;

They run among the mountains ;

They give drink to every beast of the field ;

The wild asses quench their thirst.

By them the fowl of the heaven have their habitation,
They sing among the branches.

He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle,

And herb for the service of man :

That He may bring forth food out of the earth,

And bread that strengtheneth man’s heart.

O Lord, how manifold are Thy works !
In wisdom hast Thou made them all. !

! Psalm civ. (R.V.)

 

Spottiswoode & Co. Printers, New-street Sguare, London.