THE TESTIMONY OF THE ROCKS. 61 
where I find simple fossils, I know that I have a more 
ancient bed of lime-stone or sand-stone than the strata 
which contain more complex forms,—which appeared 
later. Note well, the geologists which we have quoted 
assert that this is the best and final proof for the po- 
sition of a stratum in the scale of geological history. 
The geologist depends on the fossils. But he believes 
these to belong to an earlier or more recent age because 
he accepts the evolutionist’s word for it. And the evo- 
lutionist says: the geologist says these rocks are oldest; 
but in them I find the simplest forms; hence the evolu- 
tionary theory is proven. 
We repeat it,—is not this a very, very extraordinary 
situation? Have we not here a perfect case of what 
logicians call “reasoning in a circle,’ or “begging the 
question?” How can the evolutionist quote the geologist 
when the geologist asserts that he classifies his layers of 
rock according to the fossils——and that he accepts what 
the evolutionists asserts regarding these? 
What, in view of this situation, becomes of the evo- 
lutionist’s argument from fossils? And what becomes 
of the “ages” of speculative geology? 
