can this mean but that he requires us to believe an invention of his own imagination, and that we are to accept on trust that which he plainly tells us is inexplicable?

Now in the above passage we see the failure of the system, and its ingenious author check-mated by his own acknowledgment. No one ought to feel surprise,' he adds, at much remaining unexplained in the Origin of Species, if due allowance be made for our profound ignorance of the mutual relation of the inhabitants of the world during the many past epochs of its history' (137).

If much remain unexplained about the Origin of Species, then Mr Darwin has given a false title to his book, ‘On the Origin of Species by Natural Selection, and the preservation of favoured races in the Struggle for Life;' for when we approach to the origin we cannot learn what it is; and when, after that, we seek for information in the first steps in advancement, Natural Selection is fairly abandoned, and Mr Darwin tells us he can give no answer to our inquiries, for he has no facts to guide him, and all speculation on the subject would be baseless and useless!

Now when the Origin of Species is the question, and we come to such a confession as this, can we help concluding that the author acknowledges his own defeat? the ingenious helmsman has steered the Theory on the rocks, and there it must await its destiny.

In this most important part of the discussion it is deeply interesting to find not only an acknowledgment of the failure of the Theory, but to meet with a profession of that

The title chosen by the author for his book does not avoid the metaphor, and in that respect is in keeping with the rest of the volume-'favoured races, who favours them? or who has shown them favour? They are the elect of Mr Darwin's system; Natural Selection, another metaphor, educates the elect and preserves them.

principle which, if duly attended to, would have saved the author from this dilemma? when we have no facts to guide us, and when we are profoundly ignorant of the mutual relation of the inhabitants of the world, during the many past epochs of its history, all speculation on the Origin of Species would be baseless and useless.'

This is precisely the true state of the case, and with this conclusion we heartily agree-only, be it observed, that this principle contradicts the author's practice, as that which he attempts all through, from the first page to the last, is to give us a clear sketch of the mutual relation of the inhabitants of the earth during the many past epochs of its history. He tells us of their transformations, he describes to us how animals have been changed into other forms, he talks of their improvement, of their plastic qualities, of their modifications, of the changes of varieties into new species; he says that transformation has been going on from the dawn of life, is now going on, and will go on to ultimate perfection; he intimates the classes of animals which have been transformed in ten thousand generations;' in short, he professes a perfect acquaintance with their general history in the past epochs of geological formation, and insists on the achievements of Natural Selection in bringing on animated nature from the beginning of things to the present hour; is this 'profound ignorance of the mutual relations of the inhabitants of the earth during the many past epochs of its history?' Let the reader judge.

It is however pleasant to find that there are occasions when the force of truth can bring the author to admit those sober reflections which common sense demands, which must be the basis of all truth, and which ought to

guide the most powerful as well as the most ordinary intellect.

But the approach to the dawn of life, and the search for the primordial form, bring us to a position where we can discover something real; for whither can we turn to investigate the early appearance of organic beings but to the records of geology? The earth, as it has been well said, has left us her autobiography, and this we must study to search as far as we can the epochs of her ancient formations. All the successive records of this great work it is our business carefully to consult, that we may understand the story of life, by a patient and cautious research. This labour has been undertaken by many an able student, and the story is now so well understood that the general outline of it will scarcely require any farther emendation. On the grand plan, and most of the details, there is a general harmony of sentiment. Geology is an established

and consistent science.

We shall now see how Mr Darwin confronts the testimony of geology. If my Theory be true,' says he, it is indisputable that before the lowest Silurian stratum was deposited, long periods elapsed, as long as, or probably far longer than the whole interval from the Silurian age to the present day; and that during these vast, yet quite unknown periods of time, the world swarmed with living creatures' (333). This surely is casting the whole system on the hazard of a die, it is a bold defiance and brow-beating of the evidence of nature, and is the most desperate and daring proposition ever yet risked in all the annals of science. My Theory must be true,' it affirms, and therefore it is beyond dispute that the records of geology are of no account. The evidence that I want is not to be had

in the existing records, and therefore I affirm that there was another world before the lowest Silurian, and that in that unknown epoch the world was swarming with animals according to my system.'

This passage one would think must be sufficient to open the eyes of any votary of Natural Selection, and to convince the most ardent zealot of the hopelessness of the Theory. Even the author himself has his misgivings, we may almost say his despair, after this reckless declaration. To the question why we do not find records of these vast primordial periods, I can give no satisfactory answer the difficulty of understanding the absence of vast piles of fossiliferous strata, which, on my Theory, no doubt were somewhere accumulated before the Silurian epoch, is very great. The case at present must remain inexplicable, and may be truly urged as a valid argument against the views here entertained' (334).

The absence then of evidence in the geological record is by the author's acknowledgment an argument so adverse to his Theory that he can give no satisfactory answer to it-it is a very great difficulty-it is inexplicable--the objection is a valid argument against the views he has entertained.'

What more could we wish than this, even in a formal recantation? the author acknowledges that the existing evidences of Nature's records are against him, and that he cannot get over the difficulty. But if the present state of things is unmanageable, time to come may bring some

This is repeated, p. 497: Why do we not find great piles of strata beneath the Silurian system, stored with the remains of the progenitors of the Silurian groups of fossils? for on my Theory such strata must somewhere have been deposited at these ancient and utterly unknown epochs of the world's history.'

relief-hereafter the difficulty may receive some explanation.' The learned author conjectures that at a period immeasurably antecedent to the Silurian epoch continents may have existed where oceans are now spread out, and clear and open oceans may have existed where our continents now stand' (335). He suggests that palæontological researches modify antecedent decisions; that fossil animals have been discovered lower down in the rocks than was supposed in the time of Cuvier; that we have not examined all the formations in the world; that we have no right to expect to find an infinite number of these fine transitional forms which have connected all the past and present species, we ought only to look for a few links (327); that we falsely infer because certain genera have not been found beneath a certain stage, that they did not exist before that stage-negative evidence is worthless; and, lastly, we should look on the geological record as a history of the world imperfectly kept, and written in a changing dialect. Of this history we possess the last volume only, relating only to two or three countries. Of this volume only here and there a short chapter has been preserved, and of each page only here and there a few lines. On this view the difficulties above discussed are greatly diminished, or even disappear (337).

So then, notwithstanding the above acknowledgments, the author at last talks himself into the pleasant belief that the difficulties have disappeared! This indeed is characteristic of Mr Darwin's mode of reasoning. He not unfrequently begins a proposition with stating the inexplicable difficulties which accompany it, but finishes by saying that he sees no great difficulty in believing in some solution of the problem. But if all these difficulties dis