CHAPTER V. 



PALAEONTOLOGY. 



THE present Chapter will be devoted to a con- 

 sideration of the evidence of organic evolution 

 which has been furnished by the researches of geo- 

 logists. On account of its direct or historical nature, 

 this branch of evidence is popularly regarded as the 

 most important so much so, indeed, that in the 

 opinion of most educated persons the whole doctrine 

 of organic evolution must stand or fall according to 

 the so-called " testimony of the rocks." Now, without 

 at all denying the peculiar importance of this line of 

 evidence, I must begin by remarking that it does not 

 present the denominating importance which populai 

 judgment assigns to it. For although popular judg- 

 ment is right in regarding the testimony of the rocks 

 as of the nature of a history, this judgment, as a rule, 

 is very inadequately acquainted with the great imper- 

 fections of that history. Knowing in a general way 

 what magnificent advances the science of geology has 

 made during the present century, the public mind is 

 more or less imbued with the notion, that because 

 we now possess a tolerably complete record of the 

 chronological succession of geological formations, we 

 must therefore possess a correspondingly complete 



