174 THE DAWN OF LIFE. 



Eozoon for tlie first fos'sil of tlie Laurentian^ and in 

 suggesting for tlie period tlie name " Eozoic/^ I have 

 by no means desired to exclade tlie possibility of forms 

 of life which may have been precursors of what is now 

 to us the dawn of organic existence. Should remains 

 of still older organisms be found in those rocks now 

 known to us only by pebbles in the Laurentian^ these 

 names will at least serve to mark an important stage 

 in geological investigation.^^ 



But what if the result of such investigations should 

 be to produce more sceptics, or to bring to light mineral 

 structures so resembling Eozoon as to throw doubt 

 upon the whole of the results detailed in these chap- 

 ters ? I can fancy that this might be the first conse- 

 quence^ more especially if the investigations were in 

 the hands of persons more conversant with minerals 

 than with fossils ; but I see no reason to fear the 

 ultimate results. In any case, no doubt, the value of 

 the researches hitherto made may be diminished. . It 

 is always the fate of discoverers in Natural Science, 

 either to be followed by opponents who temporarily or 

 permanently impugn or destroy the value of their new 

 facts, or by other investigators who push on the know- 

 ledge of facts and principles so far beyond their stand- 

 point that the original discoveries are cast into the 

 sh^de. This is a fatality incident to the progress of 

 scientific work, from which no man can be free ; and in 

 so far as such matters are concerned, we must all be 

 content to share the fate of the old fossils whose 

 history we investigate, and, having served our day and 



