156 Rev. Mr WhewelFs Address to the Geological Society, 



more remarkable is, that the animal was not only new in both 

 countries as a fossil genus, but involved a transgression of the 

 supposed boundaries of fossil forms. Not only had no 

 human bones been found in genuine strata, but, aS it had been 

 generally held, no traces of those creatures which most nearly 

 imitate the human form. This rule now no longer holds good ; 

 for during the past year the bones of monkeys have been dis- 

 covered both at Sansan, in France, in the Sewalik Hills in the 

 north of Hindostan, and more recently under the City of Cal- 

 cutta. 



That this is a highly interesting and important discovery, no 

 one who attends to the signification of geological speculations 

 can doubt. I do not know if there are any persons who lament, 

 or any who exult, that this discovery tends to obliterate the 

 boundary between the present condition of the earth, tenanted 

 by man, and the former stages through which it has passed. 

 For my own part I can see no such tendency. I have no belief 

 that geology will ever be able to point to the commencement of 

 the present order of things, as a problem which she can solve, 

 if she is allowed to make the attempt. The gradation in form 

 between man and other animals a gradation which we all re- 

 cognise, and which, therefore, need not startle us because it is 

 presented under a new aspect, is but a slight and, as appears to 

 me, unimportant feature, in looking at the great subject of 

 man's origin. Even if we had no divine record to guide us, it 

 would be most un philosophical to attempt to trace back the 

 history of man without taking into account the most remark- 

 able facts in his nature ; the facts of civilization, art, government, 

 writing, speech — his traditions — ^his internal wants — his intel- 

 lectual, moral, and religious constitution. If we will look back- 

 wards, we must look at all these things as evidences of the origin 

 and end of man's being. When we do thus comprehend in our 

 view the whole of the case, it is impossible for us, as I have 

 elsewhere said, to arrive at an origin homogeneous with the pre- 

 sent state of things ; and on such a subject the geologist may 

 be well content to close his own volume, and open one which 

 has man's moral and religious nature for its subject. 



In order to complete the notice of the contributions to foreign 

 geology, I must mention Mr Roy's account of Upper Canada ; 



