306 Geological Society. 



jects, indeed, are not yet touched upon by Mr. Lyell j and I throw 

 out these remarks only to show by what difficulties the Huttonian 

 hypothesis is encountered of a kind, too, never present to the mind 

 of its inventor. 



There is however one chapter in the "Principles of Geology" where 

 the author combats the doctrine of the progressive development of 

 organic life, and briefly considers the distribution of fossil bodies in 

 the successive strata of the earth. I admit the general truth of his facts 

 and the strength of his argument, and I allow that he has succeeded 

 in exposing some of the errors and misstatements of his opponents. 

 A doctrine may however be abused, and yet contain many of the 

 elements of truth. With reference to the functions of the individual 

 being, one organic structure is as perfect as another. But I think 

 that in the repeated and almost entire changes of organic types in 

 the successive formations of the earth in the absence of mammalia 

 in the older, and their very rare appearance (and then in forms en- 

 tirely unknown to us) in the newer secondary groups in the diffu- 

 sion of warm-blooded quadrupeds (frequently of unknown genera) 

 through the older tertiary systems in their great abundance (and 

 frequently of known genera) in the upper portions of the same 

 series and, lastly, in the recent appearance of man on the surface 

 of the earth (now universally admitted) in one word, from all 

 these facts combined, we have a series of proofs the most emphatic 

 and convincing, that the existing order of nature is not the last of 

 an uninterrupted succession of mere physical events derived from 

 laws now in daily operation : but on the contrary, that the ap- 

 proach to the present system of things has been gradual, and that 

 there has been a progressive development of organic structure sub- 

 servient to the purposes of life. 



Considered as a mere question of physics, (and keeping all moral 

 considerations entirely out of sight,) the appearance of man is a 

 geological phenomenon of vast importance, indirectly modifying 

 the whole surface of the earth, breaking in upon any supposition 

 of zoological continuity, and utterly unaccounted for by what we 

 have any right to call the laws of nature. 



If by the laws of nature we mean only such manifestations of 

 power as seem good to the supreme Intelligence, then there can be 

 no matter for dispute. But in physical questions such terms as the 

 " laws of nature" have a proper reference only to second causes : 

 and I ask, by what operation of second causes can we account for the 

 recent appearance of man ? Were there no other zoological fact in 

 secondary geology, I should consider this, by itself, as absolutely 

 subversive of the first principles of the Huttonian hypothesis. 



If the principles vindicated in Mr. Lyell's work be true, then 

 there can be no great violations of continuity either in the struc- 

 ture or position of our successive formations. But we know that 

 there are enormous violations of geological continuity : and though 

 relatively speaking many of them may be local, of this at least we 

 are certain, that they have been produced by forces adequate to the 

 effects and coextensive with the phenomena. 



The 



