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life of the globe, that have been preserved in 

 fossil form to puzzle posterity and multiply per 

 plexing problems, was no greater at any time 

 than it is at present. Darwin himself admits 

 that "The accumulation of each great fossil- 

 iferous formation will be recognized as having 

 depended on an unusual occurrence of circum 

 stances, and the blank intervals between the 

 successive stages as of vast duration"; and 

 Herbert Spencer again is forced to admit here 

 that "geologists agree that even had we before 

 us every kind of fossil which exists, we should 

 still have nothing like a complete index to the 

 past inhabitants of the globe ;" and he adds 

 further, that " there are strong reasons for be 

 lieving that the records which remain bear but 

 a small ratio to the records that have been de 

 stroyed." He also further admitted that "the 

 facts about fossil remains are so fragmentary 

 that no positive conclusion can be drawn from 

 them." Then, too, as Spencer has remarked, 

 " The great mass of ancestral types plant and 

 animal consisting of soft tissues, have left no 

 remains whatever," which coincides with Dar 

 win's remark that " No organism wholly soft 



