236 |Pajr S*rm0tt$, (Sissajjss, anb fjtobiefos. [XL 



to regard the oldest fossiliferous rocks as the ultima 

 Thule of his science ; or what there is inconsistent with 

 the relations between the finite and the infinite mind, in 

 the assumption, that we may discern somewhat of the 

 beginning, or of the end, of this speck in space we call 

 our earth. The finite mind is certainly competent to 

 trace out the development of the fowl within the egg ; 

 and I know not on what ground it should find more 

 difficulty in unravelling the complexities of the develop- 

 ment of the earth. In fact, as Kant has well remarked, l 

 the cosmical process is really simpler than the biological. 



This attempt to limit, at a particular point, the progress 

 of inductive and deductive reasoning from the things 

 which are, to those which were this faithlessness to its 

 own logic, seems to me to have cost Uniformitarianism 

 the place, as the permanent form of geological specula- 

 tion, which it might otherwise have held. 



It remains that I should put before you what I 

 understand to be the third phase of geological specula- 

 tion namely, EVOLUTIONISM. . 



I shall not make what I have to say on this head 

 clear, unless I diverge, or seem to diverge, for a while, 

 from the direct path of my discourse, so far as to explain 

 what I take to be the scope of geology itself. I conceive 

 geology to be the history of the earth, in precisely the 

 same sense as biology is the history of living beings ; 

 and I trust you will not think that I am overpowered by 

 the influence of a dominant pursuit if I say that I trace 

 a close analogy between these two histories. 



If I study a living being, under what heads does the 



1 " Man darf es sich also nicht befremden lassen, wenn ich mich unterstehe 

 zu sagen, dass eher die Bildung aller Himmelskorper, die Ursache ihrer 

 Bewegungen, kurz der Ursprung der ganzen gegenwartigen Verfassung des 

 Weltbaues werden konnen eingesehen werden, ehe die Erzeugung eines 

 einzigen Krautes oder einer Raupe aus mechanischen Griinden, deutlich und 

 vollsttindig kund werden wird." KANT'S Sdmmtliehe Werke, Bd. I. p. 220. 



