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The System of Animate Nature; The Gifford Lectures Delivered in the University of St. Andrews in the Years 1915 and 1916
The System of Animate Nature The Gifford Lectures Delivered in the University of St Andrews in the Years 1915 and 1916 Author:John Arthur Thomson General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1920 Original Publisher: H. Holt and Company Subjects: Biology Evolution Philosophy / Religious Religion / Philosophy Science / Life Sciences / Biology / General Science / Life Sciences / Evolution Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It h... more »as no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: LECTURE XII. GEEAT STEPS IN ORGANIC EVOLUTION. § 1. The Origin of Organisms upon the Earth. § 2. The Nature of the First Organisms. § 3. Establishment of Diverse Types of Cellular Organisation. § 4. The Divergence of Green Plants. § 5. The Making of Bodies. § 6. The Divergence of the Sexes. § 7. Progressive Differentiations and Integrations. § 8. Rise and Progress of Backboned Animals. § 9. The Ascent of Man. § 10. General Impressions of Animate Evolution. The largest and most overwhelming idea in all science is that the system of Nature in all its complexity, intricacy, multitudinousness, and harmony has come to be as it is from apparently simple beginnings -- from something like a nebula if we go back to inorganic genesis, from a crowd of invisible microbes if we begin with the primordial organisms on the cooling earth. We say the word evolution so often that we are apt to get dull to the overpowering grandeur and undeniable mysteriousness of the process. It may not be altogether unprofitable to attempt the impossible, -- a short review of the great achievements. § 1. The Origin of Organisms upon the Earth. As every one knows, there was a time when the temperature of our earth was beyond the endurance even of the mythical salamander. It was far too high to admit of the existence of forms of life like those we know, or can even imagine, and we need not speculate about others. Therewas a time, therefo...« less