PROGRESSIVE RELATIONS. Natural Tendency to be interested in the Future-Incessant Change and Progress in Nature— Extinction and Creation ever coincident-Higher Physical Developments-No Abatement of Cosmical Forces-Intellectual and Moral Ascension -Newer and Higher Varieties of Man-This Progression in Obvious Operation-Effect of Geological Changes-Differences among Men lessened but not obliterated by Higher Developments-Our Eighth Proposition. HAVING glanced at man's Where, or the relations he bears to the present, and having endeavoured to discover his Whence, or his relative antiquity and origin, we are now in a position to indicate with some degree of probability his Whither, or the course that still lies before him. As it is only from the order of the present that we can judge of the operations of the past, so it is from a knowledge of the past and present, combined with the belief in nature's continuity, that we can form any intelligible conception of that which must follow. As it is a law of our nature to take an interest in that which precedes our own being, so we are similarly compelled to look for ward far beyond the period of our existence. As we derive most obvious benefits from a knowledge of the past, so we may secure some gratification from an indication of the future. It is extending, as it were, the limit of our being, and embracing a wider view of creation than that which naturally falls beneath the cognisance of our living existence-a glimpse beyond the threescore and ten that ordinarily rounds the period of our earthly endurance. We are ever in care and anxiety about our own individual future ; can we refrain from looking into the future of our race-a future to which every act of our own is a contribution either for good or for evil-an impulse to progress, or a check to advancement ? In trying to arrive at some intelligible conception of the future relations of our race, we must be guided exclusively by what we have learned of the past, and by the belief that the methods of nature are unchangeable and enduring. Than this, reason has no other course, and when logically followed we are bound to accept its deductions. If then paleontology has determined a progressive ascent from lower to higher life-forms in the past, and physiology admits a principle of variation at work in the present, we may rest assured the process of ascensive development is still elaborating newer and higher forms for the future. All the forces of nature, physical and vital, are as active and operative as ever, and if to them we ascribe in any degree the vital changes that have taken place, so through their instrumentality we must look for similar changes to follow. So far as science can determine, there is in nature no abatement of force, no change of method; and it were reversing every principle of reasoning to suppose that under these circumstances life had ceased to diverge or had found its eulmination in man. It is true that to whatever process we ascribe the introduction of new species, its operation is so slow and gradual, that centuries may pass away before its results become discernible. But no matter how slow; time is without limit, and if we can trace a process of variation at work, it is sure to widen in the long run into what are regarded as specific distinctions. It is no invalidation of this argument that science cannot point to the introduction of any new species within the historic era, for, till within a century or so science took no notice either of the introduction or extinction of species, nor was it sufficiently acquainted with the flora and fauna of the globe to determine the amount of variation that was taking place among their respective families. Indeed, influenced by the belief that the life of the globe was the result of one creative act, men were unwilling to look at the long past which the infant science of |