PREFACE TO THE FIFTH EDITION. xvii 



deration not inappropriate. In it are noticed several 

 new discoveries relating to the subjects treated of in 

 this Essay, which, had I not decided on adding the 

 discourse, I should have incorporated with the text. 

 The doctrine of Continuity, however, though closely 

 allied with that of Correlation, could not well have been 

 interwoven with the Essay, and is more suitable as a 

 sequel. 



I cannot but feel gratified with the reception that 

 address has met with ; and although the portions re- 

 ferring to the continuity of succession of organised 

 beings have, as I rather expected, been the subject of 

 some adverse comment, yet, as I have seen no argu- 

 ment against them, I have nothing at present to answer 

 or to alter. 



Several of the arguments adduced by me were 

 written some years ago, and before the appearance of 

 Darwin's now celebrated work. I had then no notion 

 of the effects of natural selection in modifying organisms, 

 but in order to test as fairly as I could the reasons for 

 and against continuity, as opposed to special creations, I 

 wrote down at different times in the form of a dialogue 

 everything that occurred to me as bearing most strongly 

 on each side of the question, and showed it to several 

 friends with whom I discussed the subject. My result- 

 ing opinion is given in the text, 



I thought I had sufficiently guarded myself in the 

 passage at p. 221, from being supposed to deny that 

 there are or have been catastrophes or cataclysms ; but 

 it appears from some comments that I have not done 

 so. If sea or river undermine a cliff and the cliff fall, 



