Palaeontology. 1 6 1 



fossil state, or of our finding them even if they 

 have been. Therefore, if the theory of evolution is 

 true, we ought not to expect from the geological 

 record a full history of specific changes in any but 

 at most a comparatively small number of instances, 

 where local circumstances happen to have been 

 favourable for the writing and preservation of such a 

 history. But we might reasonably expect to find a 

 general concurrence of geological testimony to the 

 larger fact namely, of there having been throughout 

 all geological time a uniform progression as regards 

 the larger taxonomic divisions. And, as I will next 

 proceed to show, this is, in a general way, what we do 

 find, although not altogether without some important 

 exceptions, with which I shall deal in an Appendix. 



There is no positive proof against the theory of 

 descent to be drawn from a study of palaeontology, or 

 proof of the presence of any kind of fossils in strata 

 where the fact of their presence is incompatible with 

 the theory of evolution. On the other hand, there is 

 an enormous body of uniform evidence to prove two 

 general facts of the highest importance in the present 

 connexion. The first of these general facts is, that an 

 increase in the diversity of types both of plants and 

 animals has been constant and progressive from the 

 earliest to the latest times, as we should anticipate that 

 it must have been on the theory of descent in ever- 

 ramifying lines of pedigree. And the second general 

 fact is, that through all these branching lines of ever- 

 multiplying types, from the first appearance of each 

 of them to their latest known conditions, there is 

 overwhelming evidence of one great law of organic 

 nature the law of gradual advance from the general 



* M 



