120 GEOLOGICAL CHANGE, AND TIME. 



ditiou of organic' life beiug- only tlie latest phase of a long jjrecediug 

 series, each stage of which recedes further from the existing- aspect of 

 things as we trace it backward into the past. And though no relic 

 had yet been found, or indeed was ever likely to be found, of the first 

 living things that appeared ujion the earth's surface, the manifest sim- 

 l)lification of types in the older formations pointed irresistibly to some 

 beginning from which the long procession has taken its start. If then 

 it could thus be demonstrated that there had been upon the globe an 

 orderly march of living forms from the lowliest grades in early times 

 to man himself to-day, and thus that in one department of her domain, 

 extending through the greater portion of the records of the earth's his- 

 tory, Nature had not been uniform, but had folh^wed a vast and noble 

 plan of evolution, surely it might have been expected that those who 

 discovered and made known this plan would seek to ascertain whether 

 some analogous physical progression from a definite beginning might 

 not be discernible in the framework of the globe itself 



But the early masters of the science labored under two great disad- 

 vantages. In the first place, they found the oldest records of the earth's 

 history so brokeu up and eftaced as to be no longer legible. And in 

 the second place, they lived under the spell of that strong reaction 

 against speculation which followed the bitter controversy between the 

 Neptunists and Plutonists in the earlier decades of the century. They 

 considered themselves bound to search for facts, not to build up theories; 

 and as in the crust of the earth they could find no facts which threw 

 any light upon the i>rimeval constitution and subsequent develoi^ment 

 of our planet, they shut their ears to any theoretical interpretations 

 that might be ottered from other departments of science. It was 

 enough for them to maintain, as Ilutton had done, that in the visible 

 structure of the earth itself no trace can be found of the beginning of 

 things, and that the oldest terrestrial records reveal no physical con- 

 ditions essentially different frcmi those in which we still live. They 

 doubtless listened with interest to the speculations of Kant, Laplace, 

 and Herschel on the probable evolution of nebuhie, suns, and ])lanets, 

 but it was with the languid interest attaching to ideas that lay outside 

 of their own domain of research. They recognized no i)ractical con- 

 nection between such speculations and the data furnished by the earth 

 itself as to its own history and i)rogress. 



This curicms lethargy with respect to theory on the part of men who 

 were popularly regarded as among the most speculative followers of 

 science would ])i()bably not have been speedily disi)elled by any dis- 

 covery made within their own field of observation. Even now, after 

 many years of the most diligent r<'search, the first chai)ters of our 

 ])lanet's history remain undiscovered or undecipherable. On the great 

 terrestrial palim])sest the earliest inscriptions seem to have been hope- 

 lessly effaced by those of later ages. But the question of the prim- 



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