species has passed--this is true
in Man as well as in the Frog.

We need not tarry long in considering the Reptile family of living
forms. In its varieties of serpents, lizards, crocodiles, turtles,
etc., we have studied and observed its forms. We see the limbless
snakes; the lizards with active limbs; the huge, clumsy, slow
crocodiles and alligators--the armor-bearing turtles and tortoises--all
belonging to the one great family of Reptiles, and nearly all of them
being degenerate descendants of the mighty Reptile forms of the
geological Age of Reptiles, in which flourished the mighty forms of the
giant reptiles--the monsters of land and water. Amidst the dense
vegetation of that pre-historic age, surrounded by the most favorable
conditions, these mighty creatures flourished and lived, their
fossilized skeleton forms evidencing to us how far their descendants
have fallen, owing to less favorable conditions, and the development of
other life-forms more in harmony with their changed environment.

Next comes the great family of Birds. The Birds ascended from the
Reptiles. This is the Eastern Teaching, and this is the teaching of
Western Science It was formerly taught in the text-books that the line
of ascent was along the family of winged reptiles which existed in the
Age of Reptiles, in the early days of the Earth. But the later writers
on the subject, in the Western world, have contradicted this. It is now
taught that these ancient winged-reptiles were featherless, and more
closely resembled the Bat family than birds. (You will remember that a
Bat is neither a reptile nor a bird--it is a mammal, bringing forth its
young alive, and suckling them at its breast. The Bat is more like a
mouse, and its wings are simply membrane stretched between its fingers,
its feet, and its tail.)

The line of ascent from Reptile to Bird was along the forms of the
Reptiles that walked on land. There are close anatomical and
physiological relations and correspondences between the two families
(Reptiles and Birds) which we need not refer to here. And, of course,
many modifications have occurred since the "branching-out." The scales
of the reptiles, and the feathers of the birds, are known to be but
modifications of the original outer skin, as are also the hair, claws,
hoofs, nails, etc., of all animals. Even teeth arose in this way,
strange as it may now seem--they are all secreted from the skin. What a
wonderful field for thought--this gra