EARLY REPTILIAN FOSSILS. 83 



of a progressive development. Below these for- 

 mations, fish : then, low in these formations, fish 

 saurian s ; above them, true and complete sau- 

 rians ; finally, higher still, saurians advancing 

 to a more elevated grade of animality ; and 

 where do these more elevated tyj^es occur ? In 

 the next formation, passing over one which 

 hardly represents any but deep-sea life. Nay, 

 cetaceous relics have been found before we leave 

 the strata so remarkable for the saurians. Thus, it 

 appears that the whole of this chapter of palaeon- 

 tology, when read by a light fi-om nature, and not 

 firom man's capricious humour, so far firom being 

 opposed to the natural genesis of animals, gives it 

 support. Men, however, and of lively parts too, 

 might go on for an age misreading such palpable 

 facts, if they be determined against putting them 

 into the collocation in which a sense can be made 

 of them, just as we might puzzle for ever over a 

 Latin or Greek sentence, if obstinately resolved 

 against making English out of it except in its 

 original construction. 



After presenting the case of the reptilian fossils 

 of the secondary formation in this way, I feel it 

 hardly necessary to track the Edinburgh reviewer 

 through all his particular objections. They are 



