APPENDIX. 97 



species only to another; so that the phenomenon has 

 always been of a simple and modest character *." The 

 "Explanation" first quoted appears to me irreconci- 

 lable with this doctrine. 



It would be foreign to the object of the present work, 

 to notice other opinions advanced in " The Vestiges," 

 which bear upon some of the phenomena described in 

 the text ; but I would strongly recommend those who 

 are interested in the subject, to peruse with serious 

 attention, and unprejudiced mind, the " Explanations " 

 of this able anonymous author. I venture to offer 

 one word of caution, namely, that the arguments in 

 proof of the development theory, derived from fossil 

 organic remains, should not, in the present state of our 

 knowledge of the ancient inhabitants of the globe, be 

 regarded as conclusive. The evidence hitherto ob- 

 tained is insufficient to warrant the assertion, that " the 

 remains and traces of plants and animals found in the 

 succession of strata, show that the earth gradually be- 

 came the theatre of organic being, — simple forms appear- 

 ing first, and more complicated afterwards. A time when 

 there was no life is first seen; we then see life begin, and 

 go on,^'' &c. t The hasty generalisationson this topic, 

 in which many eminent geologists and palaeontologists 



* Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, 4th ed., p. 231. 

 t Explanations, p. 30. 



H 



