IN ITS EMBHYONiC STATE. 247 



of the oak, from the minute two-lobed seedling of a week's 

 growth up to the gigantic tree of five centuries, is as capable 

 of being demonstrated by observation spread over five hun- 

 dred yards of space, as by observation spread over five hun- 

 dred years of time. And be it remembered, that the sea- 

 coasts of the world are several hundred thousand miles in 

 extent. Europe is by far the smallest of the earth's four 

 large divisions, and it is bounded, in proportion to its size, 

 by a greater extent of land than any of the others. And 

 yet the sea-coasts of Europe alone, including those of its 

 islands, exceed twenty-five thousand miles. We have re- 

 sults before us, in this extent of space, identical with those 

 of many hundred thousand years of time ; and if terrestrial 

 plants were as certainly developments of the low plants of 

 the sea as the huge oak is a development of the immature 

 seedling, just sprung from the acorn, so vast a stretch of sea- 

 coast could not fail to present us with the intermediate vege- 

 tation in all its stages. But the sea-coasts fail to exhibit 

 even a vestige of the intermediate vegetation. Experience 

 spread over an extent of space analogous to millions of years 

 of time, does not furnish, in this department, a single fact 

 corroborative of the development theory, but, on the contrary, 

 many hundreds of facts that bear directly against it. 



The author of the " Vestiges" is evidently a practised and 

 tasteful writer, and his work abounds in ingenious combiner 

 tions of thought ; but those powers of abstract reflection, on 

 whose vigorous exercise the origination of argument depends, 

 nature seems to have denied him. There are two things ir. 

 especial which his work wants, — original observation and 

 abstract thought, — the power of seeing for himself and of 

 reasoning for himself; and what we find instead is simply a 

 vivid appreciation of the images of things, as these images 

 exist in other minds, and a vigorous perception of the various 

 shades of resemblance which obtain among them. There is 



