376 Miscellaneous. 



can only glance at some of the considerations which Darwin adduces, 

 or will be sure to adduce in the future and fuller exposition which is 

 promised. To display them in such wise as to indoctrinate the un- 

 scientific reader would require a volume. Merely to refer to them 

 in the most general terms would suffice for those familiar with 

 scientific matters, but would scarcely enlighten those who are not. 

 Wherefore let these trust the impartial Pictet, who freely admits 

 that, "in the absence of sufficient direct proofs to justify the possi- 

 bility of his hypothesis, Mr. Darwin relies upon indirect proofs, the 

 bearing of which is real and incontestable," who concedes that "his 

 theory accords very well with the great facts of comparative anatomy 

 and zoology — comes in admirably to explain unity of composition of 

 organisms, also to explain rudimentary and representative organs, 

 and the natural series of genera and species — equally corresponds 

 with many palseontological data — agrees well with the specific resem- 

 blances which exist between two successive faunas, with the paral- 

 lelism which is sometimes observed between the series of palseonto- 

 logical succession and of embryonal development," &c. ; and finally, 

 although he does not accept the theory in these results, he allows 

 that " it appears to offer the best means of explaining the manner in 

 which organized beings were produced in epochs anterior to our 

 own." 



What more than this could be said for such a hypothesis ? Here, 

 probably, is its charm, and its strong hold upon the speculative mind. 

 Unproven though it be, and cumbered prima facie with cumulative 

 improbabilities as it proceeds, yet it singularly accords with great 

 classes of facts otherwise insulated and enigmatic, and explains many 

 things which are thus far utterly inexplicable upon any other scien- 

 tific assumption. 



Darwin's hypothesis is the natural complement to Ly ell's unifor- 

 mitarian theory in physical geology. It is for the organic world 

 what that popular view is for the inorganic ; and the acceptors of 

 the latter stand in a position from which to regard the former in the 

 most favourable light. Wherefore the rumour that the cautious 

 Lyell himself has adopted the Darwinian hypothesis need not sur- 

 prise us. The two views are made for each other, and like the two 

 counterpart pictures for the stereoscope, when brought together, 

 combine into one apparently solid whole. 



If we allow, with Pictet, that Darwin's theory will very well serve 

 for all that concerns the present epoch of the world's history — an 

 epoch which this renowned palaeontologist regards as including the 

 diluvial or quaternary period — then Darwin's first and foremost need 

 in his onward course is a practicable road from this into and through 

 the tertiary period, the intervening region between the comparatively 

 near and the far remote past. Here Lyell's doctrine paves the way, 

 by showing that in the physical geology there is no general or abso- 

 lute break between the two, probably no greater between the latest 

 tertiary and the quaternary period than between the latter and the 

 present time. So far, the Lyellian view is, we suppose, generally 

 concurred in. Now, as to the organic world, it is largely admitted 



