362 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the same narrow round of combining and separating. The evolution, 

 it' evolution it be, is kept within the narrowest limits ; the tendency to 

 retrograde is quite as marked as the tendency to go forward ; and, as 

 respects evolution, the conclusion to be drawn is even that which has 

 been drawn from the changes witnessed in the pigeon and the dog 

 this and no other. It may be questioned, ajso, whether this doctrine 

 of evolution derives as much support as it is supposed to do from the 

 facts belonging to astronomy and geology. 



The nebular hypothesis, which may be taken as the real starting- 

 point of the doctrine in question, is certainly very nebulous. The facts 

 upon which it is founded show unity of plan ; of that there need be no 

 doubt; but this unity of plan is really a matter quite apart from the 

 nebular hypothesis founded upon it. Besides, where did the heat come 

 from which kept up the nebulous state which preceded the formation 

 of the heavenly bodies of various sorts, and what has become of it 

 since the time of this formation ? What real proof is there of the con- 

 tinual cooling which should still be going on according to this view? 

 Like light and gravity, heat may result in the mutual reactions of the 

 heavenly bodies, or be a property of one or other of these bodies ; but 

 to conceive of it as independent of these bodies is, to say the least, no 

 easy matter. Indeed, so difficult is it so to conceive of it, that, until 

 the difficulty is overcome, the nebular hypothesis may be set aside as 

 a dream which is as little calculated to give probability to the doctrine 

 of evolution as the evidence which has been already glanced at. 



And so likewise with that particular evidence in favor of evolution 

 which the facts of geology are supposed to supply. Endless ages are 

 needed to allow of evolution ; and the facts of geology are believed to 

 testify unequivocally to the lapse of these ages. But is it so? If the 

 rock in which the skeleton of a plesiosaurus is embedded had been de- 

 posited as slowly as it is supposed to have been deposited, every trace 

 of organization must have decomposed and disappeared long ages 

 before the animal could have been covered up in its bed. For the 

 skeleton to be there at all, indeed, is a plain proof that the rock, at 

 least to the thickness needed for embedding it, must have been de- 

 posited before decomposition had time to do its work fully. And so 

 likewise in every other analogous case. Kay, it may even be ques- 

 tioned whether there has been a separate upheaval and sinking to allow 

 of the formation of each coal-seam or limestone-bed, for many of these 

 seams and beds which are parallel may have to be explained as drifts, 

 which have to do with one cataclysm of upheaval and sinking rather 

 than with many such cataclysms, for how could this strict parallelism 

 be preserved if there had been many cataclysms ? Moreover, it must 

 not be forgotten that there are not a few fossils out of place in the 

 strata, fossils which ought not to be where they are if living things 

 had made their appearance on the earth in the order required by the 

 doctrine of evolution. 



