148 NATURAL HISTORY 



phases of life which Geology has revealed. Such a 

 strange reading of geologic text would yet require a 

 divine power to introduce the first germ of life. 

 But error seldom stops till it has reached the edge 

 of the precipice, and stepped over for its fatal fall. 

 There was a time, however, when Natural History 

 seemed ready to furnish the Atheist and Pantheist 

 with a magazine of missiles, against which the 

 strongest walls Religion has raised were doomed to 

 crumble. But they have been hurled back with a 

 force that has silenced the attacking batteries. The 

 most enticing, the most plausible, and the most dan- 

 gerous was the theory of development, or transmu- 

 tation of species, making the sea, that fruitful field 

 of life, the birthplace of every organic being not in 

 perfect form, but as a mere vital point where water 

 touched the land ; invoking for the original creation 

 no higher power than the electric current. 



This theory of transformation was amusing, rather 

 than mischievous, as dreamed out by Maillet a hun- 

 dred years ago. No serious harm could come from 

 fancying a shoal of frightened fishes floundering 

 among reeds till their fins were split into feathers, 



