64 THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES 



II 



General for Egypt kept his theories to himself 

 throughout a long life, for " Telliamed," the only 

 scientific work which is known to have proceeded 

 from his pen, was not printed till 1735, when its 

 author had reached the ripe age of seventy-nine ; 

 and though De Maillet lived three years longer, 

 his book was not given to the world before 1748. 

 Even then it was anonymous to those who were 

 not in the secret of the anagrammatic character 

 of its title ; and the preface and dedication are so 

 worded as, in case of necessity, to give the printer 

 a fair chance of falling back on the excuse that 

 the work was intended for a mere jeu d' esprit. 



The speculations of the suppositions Indian 

 sage, though quite as sound as those of many a 

 " Mosaic Geology," which sells exceedingly well, 

 have no great value if we consider them by the 

 light of modern science. The waters are supposed 

 to have originally covered the whole globe; to 

 have deposited the rocky masses which compose 

 its mountains by processes comparable to those 

 which are now forming mud, sand, and shingle ; 

 and then to have gradually lowered their level, 

 leaving the spoils of their animal and vegetable 

 inhabitants embedded in the strata. As the dry 

 land appeared, certain of the aquatic animals are 

 supposed to have taken to it, and to have become 

 gradually adapted to terrestrial and aerial modes 

 of existence. But if we regard the general tenor 

 and style of the reasoning in relation to the state 



