1866. | Darwin and his Teachings. 171 
is quite clear, namely, that however much these naturalists may 
differ from one another, two out of three agree with Darwin as to 
the “derivative origin of species ;” and as it appears to us, the third 
(Mr. Trimen) unconsciously adds another link to the strong chain of 
evidence in favour of his theory presented by the geographical dis- 
tribution of animals.* 
But the plain facts of paleontology, as well as its empirical 
laws, tell forcibly in favour of a slow and gradual modification of 
species. Before Darwin’s views on the subject were published, 
Vogt, a well-known German systematizer, had already interlinked 
ito his graphic account of recent forms, the fossil species which 
serve in some degree to bridge over the structural gaps that occur 
amongst the former; and from every portion of the world, as the 
soundings of its crust are taken, we receive fresh accounts of missing 
links in the chain of beings. One grave difficulty in the way of 
the acceptance of the new theory, which would have sufficed to 
daunt many an ardent investigator, has of late been partially 
removed. Darwin, of course, does not believe in the miraculous 
creation of new species, and expresses his surprise at the credulity 
of those authors who imagine “that at innumerable periods in the 
earth’s history, certam elemental atoms have been commanded 
suddenly to flash into living tissues ;”+ but when he asks himself, 
“ How far do I extend the doctrine of the modification of species ?’’f 
he is, or rather was, necessarily unable to give anything like a satis- 
factory reply ; for when he sought to trace the origin of life in the 
rocks, he was arrested apparently at the extremes of the palzozoic 
strata by fossil forms, lowly, indeed, as compared with the verte- 
brates, but still far higher than many that now swim our seas and 
streams, and it was just as difficult to explam how these were 
created without ancestors of a still more primitive type, as it would 
be to account for the Origm of Man under similar conditions. 
Searcely, however, had the first sounds of the violent controversy 
which followed the publication of his work died away, when the 
intelligence reached us from Canada, that in the primitive rocks there, 
which had been deemed void of life, the remains of a type resembling 
one of the lowliest living organisms had been discovered, and natu- 
 ralists, in their accustomed haste to generalize, have termed it 
Eozcon—the first or earhest living being. Darwin frequently refers 
to the imperfection of the geological record, and although it is 
hardly probable that we shall ever have a perfect record whilst a 
large portion of our globe is covered with water, still we recognize 
in the discovery of the humble type alluded to, an augury that a 
* Vide ‘ Origin of Species,’ p. 416, beginning “ Sir Charles Lyell;” and p. 427, 
par. 2, as to the whole question between Dr. Sclater, Mr. Trimen, and Mr. Jenkins, 
+ Ibid., p. 517, 1. 19, 20. 
t Ibid., p. 518, 1. 4. 
