258 Darwin, and after Darwin. 



passage from the writings of Whewell, and another 

 from a distinguished French naturalist referred to by 

 him. 



In 1846 Whewell wrote : 



Not only is the doctrine of the transmutation of species in 

 itself disproved by the best physiological reasonings, but the 

 additional assumptions which are requisite to enable its ad- 

 vocates to apply it to the explanation of the geological and 

 other phenomena of the earth, are altogether gratuitous and 

 fantastical '. 



Then he quotes with approval the following 

 opinion : 



Against this hypothesis, which, up to the present time, I regard 

 as purely gratuitous, and likely to turn geologists out of the 

 sound and excellent road in which they now are, I willingly raise 

 my voice, with the most absolute conviction of being in the 

 right 2 . 



And, after displaying the proof rendered by Lyell 

 of uniformitarianism in geology, and cordially sub- 

 scribing thereto, Whewell adds : 



We are led by our reasonings to this view, that the present 

 order of things was commenced by an act of creative power 

 entirely different to any agency which has been exerted since. 

 None of the influences which have modified the present races of 

 animals and plants since they were placed in their habitations on 

 the earth's surface can have had any efficacy in producing them 

 at first. We are necessarily driven to assume, as the beginning 

 of the present cycle of organic nature, an event not included in 

 the course of nature 3 . 



So much, then, for the state of the most enlightened 

 and representative opinions on the question of evolution 



1 Whewell, Indications of the Creator, 2nd ed., 1846. 

 a De Blainville, Compte Rendu, 1837. 

 3 Whewell, ibid., p. 162. 



