242 THE COMING OF AGE OF VII 
of the present fauna have been evolved. On 
the contrary, there is a great deal to be said in 
favour. 
In the course of summing up his results, M. 
Filhol observes :— 
“During the epoch of the phosphorites, great — 
changes took place in animal forms, and almost — 
the same types as those which now exist became 
defined from one another. 
“Under the influence of natural conditions of — 
which we have no exact knowledge, though traces 
of them are discoverable, species have been modi- ~ 
fied in a thousand ways: races have arisen which, 
becoming fixed, have thus produced a corresponding 
number of secondary species.” 
In 1859, language of which this is an uninten- 
tional paraphrase, occurring in the “Origin of 
Species,” was scouted as wild speculation; at pres- _ 
ent, it is a sober statement of the conclusions to 
which an acute and critically-minded investigator 
is led by large and patient study of the facts of 
paleontology. I venture to repeat what I have 
said before, that so far as the animal world is 
concerned, evolution is no longer a speculation, but 
a statement of historical fact. It takes its place 
alongside of those accepted truths which must be 
reckoned with by philosophers of all schools. 
Thus when, on the first day of October next, 
“The Origin of Species” comes of age, the pro- 
mise of its youth will be amply fulfilled; and we 
