264 THE DEVELOPMENT HYPOTHESIS 



in his own little department of science ;" — it is surely ra- 

 tional to hold, notwithstanding, that in at least these little 

 departments they have a better right to be heard than any 

 other class of persons whatever. We must surely not refuse 

 to the man of science what we at once grant to the common 

 mechanic. A cotton-weaver or calico-printer may be a very 

 narrow man, " exclusively engaged in his own little depart- 

 ment ;" and yet certain it is that, in a question of cotton- 

 weaving or of calico-printing, his evidence is justly deemed 

 more conclusive in courts of law than that of any other man, 

 however much his superior in general breadth and intelligence. 

 And had the author of the " Vestiges" founded his hypo- 

 thesis on certain facts pertaining to the arts of cotton-weav- 

 ing and calico-printing, the cotton- weaver and calico-printer 

 would have an indisputable right to be heard on the ques- 

 tion of their general correctness. Are we to regard the case 

 as different because it is on facts pertaining to science, not 

 to cotton-weaving or calico-printing, that he professes to 

 found ? His hypothesis, unless supported by scientific evi- 

 dence, is a mere dream, — -a fiction as baseless and wild as 

 any in the " Fairy Tales" or the " Arabian Nights." And, 

 fully sensible of the fact, he calls in as witnesses the physical 

 sciences, and professes to take down their evidence. He calLs 

 into court Astronomy, Geology, Phytology, and Zoology. 

 " Hold !" exclaims the astronomer, as the examination goes 

 on ; " you are taking the evidence of my special science 

 most unfairly : I challenge a right of cross-examining the 

 witness." " Hold !" cries the geologist ; " you are putting 

 my science to the question, and extorting from it, in its agony, 

 a whole series of fictions : I claim the right of examining it 

 fairly and softly, and getting from it just the sober truth, and 

 nothing more." And the phytologist and zoologist urge exact- 

 ly similar claims. " No, gentlemen," replies the author of 

 the " Vestiges;" " you are narrow men, confined each of you 



