LIFE ON THE EARTH. 



I ain relieved from the necessity of pointing out 

 on how slight a basis these bold assumptions are 

 rashly poised, by the opportunity of referring to the 

 full and complete examination of the whole argu- 

 ment, in the Discourse on the Studies of the Univer- 

 sity of Cambridge, by Professor Sedgwick. In this 

 luminous treatise, the hypothesis of development has 

 been met at every point, on physiological and geo- 

 logical evidence; palaeontology has been surveyed 

 from a high point of view; the latest discoveries of 

 Forbes, Falconer, and Owen, bearing on the subject, 

 have been ascertained; and the true succession of 

 physical phenomena has been traced through the long 

 periods of time embraced by geology. From this 

 large investigation, the general conclusion is that 

 'Geology, not seen through the mists of any theory, 

 but taken as a plain succession of monuments and 

 facts, offers one firm cumulative argument against 

 the hypothesis of development 1 / 



CONSTANCY OF SPECIES. 



It is curious to contrast with these views of the 

 unlimited mutability of species, the conclusions of 

 an anatomist and naturalist, who is so little fettered 

 by ordinary formulae, as to admit in the genus Homo, 



1 Studies of the University of Cambridge. Preface, p cxxviii 

 edit. 5. 



