adrupeds.

A similar criticism applies to Mr. Gladstone's assumption that, as the
fourth act of that "orderly succession of times" enunciated in Genesis,
"the land-population consummated in man."

If this means simply that man is the final term in the evolutional
series of which he forms a part, I do not suppose that any objection
will be raised to that statement on the part of students of natural
science. But if the pentateuchal author goes further than this, and
intends to say that which is ascribed to him by Mr. Gladstone, I think
natural science will have to enter a _caveat._ It is not by any means
certain that man--I mean the species _Homo sapiens_ of zoological
terminology--has "consummated" the land-population in the sense of
appearing at a later period of time than any other. Let me make my
meaning clear by an example. From a morphological point of view,
our beautiful and useful contemporary--I might almost call him
colleague--the horse (_Equus caballus_), is the last term of the
evolutional series to which he belongs, just as _Homo sapiens_ is the
last term of the series of which he is a member. If I want to know
whether the species _Equus caballus_ made its appearance on the surface
of the globe before or after _Homo sapiens,_ deduction from known laws
does not help me. There is no reason, that I know of, why one should
have appeared sooner or later than the other. If I turn to observation,
I find abundant remains of _Equus caballus_ in Quaternary strata,
perhaps a little earlier. The existence of _Homo sapiens_ in the
Quaternary epoch is also certain. Evidence has been adduced in favour of
man's existence in the Pliocene, or even in the Miocene epoch. It does
not satisfy me; but I have no reason to doubt that the fact may be so,
nevertheless. Indeed, I think it is quite possible that further research
will show that _Homo sapiens_ existed, not only before _Equus caballus,_
but before many other of the existing forms of animal life; so that, if
all the species of animals have been separately created, man, in this
case, would by no means be the "consummation" of the land-population.

I am raising no objection to the position of the fourth term in Mr.
Gladstone's "order"--on the facts, as they stand, it is quite open to
any one to hold, as a pious opinion, that the fabrication of man was the
acme and final achievement of the process of peopling the globe. But
it must not be said that natural science counts this