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64 THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES It 
General for Egypt kept his theories to himself 
throughout a long life, for “Telliamed,” the onl 
scientific work which is known to have proceedec 
from his pen, was not printed till 1735, when its 
author had reached the ripe age of seventy-nine 
and though De Maillet lived “thins years longer 
his book was not given to the world before 1748. 
Even then it was anonymous to those who welll 
not in the secret of the anagrammatic character 
of its title; and the preface and dedication are so 
worded as, in case of necessity, to give the printer 
a fair chance of falling back on the excuse that 
the work was intended for a mere jeu @esprit. 
The speculations of the suppositious Indian 
sage, though quite as sound as those of many a 
“Mosaic Geology,” which sells exceedingly well, 
have no great value if we consider them by the 
light of modern science. The waters are supposed 
to have originally covered the whole globe; to 
have deposited the rocky masses which compose 
its mountains by processes comparable to those 
which are now forming mud, sand, and shingle ; 
and then to have gradually lowered their level, 
leaving the spoils of their animal and vegetable 
inhabitants embedded in the strata. As the dry 
land appeared, certain of the aquatic animals are 
supposed to have taken to it, and to have become 
gradually adapted to terrestrial and aérial modes 
of existence. But if we regard the general tenor 
and style of the reasoning in relation to the state 
