xii.] THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES. 249 



phenomena offered by the valley of the Nile appear to have 

 strongly impressed his mind, to have directed his attention to 

 all facts of a similar order which came within his observation, 

 and to have led him to speculate on the origin of the present 

 condition of our globe and of its inhabitants. But, with all his 

 ardour for science, De Maillet seems to have hesitated to publish 

 views which, notwithstanding the ingenious attempts to reconcile 

 them with the Hebrew hypothesis contained in the preface to 

 &quot; Telliamed,&quot; were hardly likely to be received with favour by 

 his contemporaries. 



But a short time had elapsed since more than one of the 

 great anatomists and physicists of the Italian school had paid 

 dearly for their endeavours to dissipate some of the prevalent 

 errors; and their illustrious pupil, Harvey, the founder of 

 modern physiology, had not fared so well, in a country less 

 oppressed by the benumbing influences of theology, as to tempt 

 any man to follow his example. Probably not uninfluenced by 

 these considerations, his Catholic majesty s Consul-General for 

 Egypt kept his theories to himself throughout a long life, for 

 &quot; Telliamed,&quot; the only scientific work which is known to have 

 proceeded from his pen, was not printed till 1735, when its 

 author had reached the ripe age of seventy-nine ; and though 

 De Maillet lived three years longer, his book was not given to 

 the world before 1748. Even then it was anonymous to those 

 who were 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 supposititious Indian sage, though 

 quite as sound as those of many a &quot; Mosaic Geology,&quot; 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 com 

 parable to those which are now forming mud, sand, and shingle ; 

 and then to have gradually lowered their level, leaving the spoils 



