20 DARWINISM. 



Now, if the simplest embryonic forms of life were the 

 progenitors of all existing- forms, this is intelligible ; but 

 how else can it be explained ? 



But, again, if species do not vary, how comes it that 

 those living at the present day are for the most part 

 not to be found among the fossil creatures of the ancient 

 rocks ? Well, some will tell you there have been many 

 distinct creations, following after many catastrophes 

 potent to destroy all the previous inhabitants of the 

 globe. Well, I will answer, if you rest on Scripture, 

 that view has no basis in Scripture, but if you do not 

 rest on Scripture, it certainly has no scientific founda- 

 tion, for though the crust of the globe has been made 

 what it is almost exclusively by the action of fire and 

 water, the effect of any sudden convulsions has been 

 a mere nothing as compared with the results from the 

 steady, slow-going, ceaselessly-operating forces of those 

 two agents. Besides, when you look back through the 

 rocks of different ages, not only do you find some forms 

 the same in all, which testifies to the permanent unity 

 of the living creation, but in those forms which differ, 

 you find the differences increasing the further you go 

 back, and some forms you find which have no modern 

 representatives, forms, that is, which have been beaten 

 in the struggle for existence. 



time like a fish, and at another time like a reptile. This is not the fact. 

 The fact established is, that up to a certain point the embryos of a man 

 and a fish continue similar, and that then differences begin to appear 

 and increase the one embryo approaching more and more towards the 

 form of a fish ; the other diverging from it more and more. And so 

 with the resemblances to the more advanced types.' Principles of 

 t, vol. i. p. 143. 



