illustrations of the more significant facts of evolution. Studying them,
the parting of the ways between two distinct orders, each having a
conspicuous feature in common while differing in appearance and habits
generally, is made strangely plain, and I propose in my unversed way to
demonstrate the line of upward development in a few examples.

Accepting as a primitive form that deplorably thin, phantasmal worm which
excavates in the ooze an appropriately narrow shaft indicated by a
dimple, or, in some cases, a swelling mound with a well-defined crater
and circular pipe, the ascent of the genealogical tree is not beset with
any great difficulty. These worms are grey in colour and shoddy in
texture, merely a tough description of slime with a crude head and long,
simple filaments. The sides of the shafts are smooth, and on the least
alarm the nervous inhabitant retracts with surprising alertness. Slightly
superior in grade, but in uninterrupted succession, is a similar worm
which solidifies its shaft with a kind of mortar and carries it up above
the level of the ooze about an inch or so--a crude effort in the
direction of the acquirement of some ease of circumstance. These flue-like
projections are more frequent on the verge of the sandy beach.

The next in order--still slim, though of a slightly more robust habit of
body--has acquired the art of spinning (caterpillar-like) a cocoon, and
of causing to adhere to the exterior thereof grains of sand and minute
chips of shell. Though this vestlet is very frail and though the sandy
outer coat is liable to drop off (when it collapses altogether), it seems
to me to indicate distinct progress, a successful accomplishment in the
direction of isolation, independence, and security. Does it not signify
that the animal has a certain perception of the knowledge of good and
evil such as dawned upon Eve as she ate the diverting apple? Eve
forthwith took to fig-leaves; the slim worm knitted a shoddy wrapper and