164 Permanence and Evolution. 



no land connection for countless ages, and that 

 a very marked division between the Indian and 

 Australian fauna corresponded exactly with 

 this ; whereas he has now come to the con- 

 clusion that the Celebes fauna partakes about 

 equally of both, which latter conclusion is cer- 

 tainly in accordance with his lists of organised 

 forms in particular. 



Also it ought to be remembered that this 

 reasoning is deeply tainted by the vice of in- 

 definiteness, the besetting sin of evolutionist 

 speculation. When a subject is very obscure, 

 the habit of calculating all the slight chances 

 for and against suppositions, which have 

 nothing in their favour which deserves the 

 name of serious evidence, is one quite 

 contrary to the proceedings of science. Nor is 

 it very easy for evolutionists to make up their 

 mind whether they suppose land and sea to 

 have remained pretty constant since the origin 

 of the present forms of life or their nearest 



