328 MAN OF SCIENCE. 



physical evidence attainable of a nature competent to de- 

 cide whether such deposits were formed simultaneously, 

 or whether they possess any given difference of antiquity/ 

 In the same historical tone, as of one referring to what 

 is no longer open to dispute, Mr Huxley continues : 

 ' For anything that geology or palaeontology are able to 

 show to the contrary, a Devonian fauna and flora in the 

 British Islands may have been contemporaneous with 

 Silurian life in North America, and with a Carboniferous 

 fauna and flora in Africa. Geographical provinces and 

 zones may have been as distinctly marked in the Palaeo- 

 zoic epoch as at present, and those seemingly sudden ap- 

 pearances of new genera and species, which we ascribe 

 to new creation, may be simple results of migration.' 



The tendency of scientific research throughout every 

 province of nature has been to obliterate lines of demarc- 

 ation, and to show, stretching beyond us into the in- 

 finitude both of time and space, immeasurable curves 

 and undulations of unity. The definite proof afforded 

 by spectrum analysis of the sameness of matter through- 

 out the solar and stellar expanses marked a stage 

 of sublime advancement in our conception of the har- 

 mony of things ; and correspondences, indubitable though 

 mysterious, between terrestrial magnetism, the spots 

 of the sun, and those systems of aerolites which have 

 recently attracted so much of the attention of philo- 

 sophers, suggest that the unities of nature are as in- 

 timate and as wonderful as her diversities. I venture 

 to throw out the suggestion that a key lately put into 

 our hands by Professor Tyndall may possibly unlock for 

 us the secret that there is unity of life, as well as unity 

 of matter, throughout space. Germs of life, Professor 

 Tyndall has taught us, are of what may be called in- 

 finitesimal smallness ; and what proof have we that, if 



