Chap. II. 



INDIVIDUALITY AMONG ACALEPHS. 



91 



It Avould be out of place to discuss here in detail the arguments hy which 

 Darwin attempts to exphiin the diversity among animals. Suffice it to sav 



of treating this part of the subject. Not only does 

 Darwin never perceive when the facts are fatal to 

 his views, but, when he has succeeded by an ingenious 

 circumlocution in overleaping the facts, he would 

 have us believe that he has lessened their impor- 

 tance, or changed their meaning. He would thus 

 have us believe that there have been periods during 

 which all that had taken place during other periods 

 was destroyed ; and this solely to explain the absence 

 of intermediate forms between the fossils found in 

 successive deposits, for the origin of which he looks 

 to those missing links, whilst every recent progress 

 in Geology shows more and more fully how gradual 

 and successive all the deposits liave been which 

 form the crust of our earth. — He would have us 

 believe that entire faunae have disappeared before 

 those were jireserved, the remains of which are 

 found in the lowest fossiliferous strata ; when we 

 find everywhere non-fossiliferous strata below those 

 that contain the oldest fossils now known. It is 

 true, he explains their absence by the supposition 

 that they were too delicate to be preserved ; but 

 any animals from which Crinoids, Brachiopods, 

 Cephalopods, and Trilobites could arise, must have 

 been similar enough to them to have left, at 

 least, traces of their presence in the lowest non- 

 fossiliferous rocks, had they ever existed at all. — 

 He would have us believe that the oldest organisms 

 that existed were simple cells, or something like the 

 lowest living beings now in existence ; when such 

 higlily organized animals as Trilobites and Ortho- 

 ceratites are among the oldest known. — He would 

 have us beheve that these lowest first bom became 

 extinct, in consequence of the gradual advantage 

 some of their more favored descendants gained over 

 the majority of their predecessors ; when there exist 

 now, and have existed at all periods in past times, 

 as large a proportion of more simply organized 

 beings, as of more favored types ; and when such 

 types as Lingula were among the lowest SOurian 

 fossils, and are alive at the present day. — He 

 would have us believe that each new species 



originated in consequence of some slight change in 

 those that preceded ; Avhen every geological formation 

 teems with types that did not exist before. — He 

 would have us believe that animals and plants 

 became gradually more and more numerous ; when 

 most species appear in myriads of individuals, in 

 the first bed in which they are found. — He would 

 have us believe that animals disappear gradually ; 

 when they are as common in the uppermost bed 

 in which they occur, as in the lowest, or any 

 intermediate bed. Species appear suddenly and 

 disappear suddenly in successive strata. That is 

 the fact proclaimed by Palaeontology ; they neither 

 increase successively in number, nor do they grad- 

 ually dwindle down ; none of the fossil remains 

 thus far observed show signs of a gradual improve- 

 ment or of a slow decay. — He would have us 

 believe that geological deposits took place during 

 periods of subsidence ; when it can be proved that 

 the whole continent of North America is formed 

 of beds which were deposited during a series of 

 successive upheavals. I quote North America in 

 preference to anj' other part of the world, because 

 the evidence is so complete here that it can be over- 

 looked only by those who may mistake subsidence 

 for the general shrinking of the earth's surface, in 

 consequence of the cooling of its mass. In this 

 part of the globe, fossils are as common along the 

 successive shores of the rising deposits of the Silu- 

 rian system, as anywhere along our beaches ; and 

 each of these successive shores extends from the 

 Atlantic States to the foot of the Rocky Mountains. 

 The evidence goes even further ; each of these suc- 

 cessive sets of beds of the Silurian system contains 

 peculiar fossils, neither found in the beds above nor 

 in the beds below, and between them there are no 

 intermediate forms. And yet Darwin affirms that 

 " the littoral and sub-littoral deposits are continually 

 worn away, as soon as they are brought up by the 

 slow and gradual rising of the land within the 

 grinding action of the coast waves." Origin of 

 Species, p. 290. — He would also have us believe 



