The Story of Evolution | Page 4

has written for those who are not students of science, or whose
knowledge may be confined to one branch of science, and used a plain
speech which assumes no previous knowledge on the reader's part.
For the rest, it will be found that no strained effort is made to trace
pedigrees of animals and plants when the material is scanty; that, if on
account of some especial interest disputable or conjectural speculations
are admitted, they are frankly described as such; and that the more
important differences of opinion which actually divide astronomers,
geologists, biologists, and anthropologists are carefully taken into
account and briefly explained. A few English and American works are
recommended for the convenience of those who would study particular
chapters more closely, but it has seemed useless, in such a work, to
give a bibliography of the hundreds of English, American, French,
German, and Italian works which have been consulted.
CONTENTS
I. THE DISCOVERY OF THE UNIVERSE II. THE FOUNDATIONS
OF THE UNIVERSE III. THE BIRTH AND DEATH OF WORLDS
IV. THE PREPARATION OF THE EARTH V. THE BEGINNING OF
LIFE VI. THE INFANCY OF THE EARTH VII. THE PASSAGE TO
THE LAND VIII. THE COAL-FOREST IX. THE ANIMALS OF THE
COAL-FOREST X. THE PERMIAN REVOLUTION XI. THE
MIDDLE AGES OF THE EARTH XII. THE AGE OF REPTILES XIII.
THE BIRD AND THE MAMMAL XIV. IN THE DAYS OF THE
CHALK XV. THE TERTIARY ERA XVI. THE FLOWER AND THE
INSECT XVII. THE ORIGIN OF OUR MAMMALS XVIII. THE
EVOLUTION OF MAN XIX. MAN AND THE GREAT ICE-AGE
XX. THE DAWN OF CIVILISATION XXI. EVOLUTION IN
HISTORY INDEX

THE STORY OF EVOLUTION

CHAPTER I
. THE DISCOVERY OF THE UNIVERSE
The beginning of the victorious career of modern science was very

largely due to the making of two stimulating discoveries at the close of
the Middle Ages. One was the discovery of the earth: the other the
discovery of the universe. Men were confined, like molluscs in their
shells, by a belief that they occupied the centre of a comparatively
small disk--some ventured to say a globe--which was poised in a
mysterious way in the middle of a small system of heavenly bodies.
The general feeling was that these heavenly bodies were lamps hung on
a not too remote ceiling for the purpose of lighting their ways. Then
certain enterprising sailors--Vasco da Gama, Maghalaes,
Columbus--brought home the news that the known world was only one
side of an enormous globe, and that there were vast lands and great
peoples thousands of miles across the ocean. The minds of men in
Europe had hardly strained their shells sufficiently to embrace this
larger earth when the second discovery was reported. The roof of the
world, with its useful little system of heavenly bodies, began to crack
and disclose a profound and mysterious universe surrounding them on
every side. One cannot understand the solidity of the modern doctrine
of the formation of the heavens and the earth until one appreciates this
revolution.
Before the law of gravitation had been discovered it was almost
impossible to regard the universe as other than a small and compact
system. We shall see that a few daring minds pierced the veil, and
peered out wonderingly into the real universe beyond, but for the great
mass of men it was quite impossible. To them the modern idea of a
universe consisting of hundreds of millions of bodies, each weighing
billions of tons, strewn over billions of miles of space, would have
seemed the dream of a child or a savage. Material bodies were "heavy,"
and would "fall down" if they were not supported. The universe, they
said, was a sensible scientific structure; things were supported in their
respective places. A great dome, of some unknown but compact
material, spanned the earth, and sustained the heavenly bodies. It might
rest on the distant mountains, or be borne on the shoulders of an Atlas;
or the whole cosmic scheme might be laid on the back of a gigantic
elephant, and--if you pressed--the elephant might stand on the hard
shell of a tortoise. But you were not encouraged to press.
The idea of the vault had come from Babylon, the first home of science.
No furnaces thickened that clear atmosphere, and the heavy-robed

priests at the summit of each of the seven-staged temples were
astronomers. Night by night for thousands of years they watched the
stars and planets tracing their undeviating paths across the sky. To
explain their movements the priest-astronomers invented the solid
firmament. Beyond the known land, encircling it, was the sea, and
beyond the sea was a range of high mountains, forming another girdle
round the earth. On these mountains the dome of the heavens rested,
much as the dome of St. Paul's rests on its