DIFFICULTIES AND OBJECTIONS 229 



by attracting investigators to the study of various 

 microscopic and imitative forms in rocks, has pro- 

 moted the advancement of knowledge, and must 

 do so still more. For my own part, though I am 

 not content to base all my reputation on such work 

 as I have done with respect to this old fossil — which, 

 indeed, was merely an interlude into which I was 

 led by the urgency of my friend Logan — I am 

 willing at least to take the responsibility of the 

 results I have announced, whatever conclusions may 

 be finally reached ; and in the consciousness of an 

 honest effort to extend the knowledge of nature, 

 to look forward to a better fame than any that 

 could result from the most successful and perma- 

 nent vindication of every detail of our scientific 

 discoveries, even if they could be pushed to a point 

 which no subsequent investigation in the same 

 difficult line of research would be able to over- 

 pass. 



Contenting myself with these general remarks, I 

 shall close this chapter with a short summary of 

 the reasons which may be adduced in support of 

 the animal nature of Eozoon, prefaced by an ideal 

 restoration of it in the supposition that it was a 

 rhizopod (Fig. 58). 



