36 Thomas I Icnry Huxley 



deep down, and that others, aj^^ain, spring free ahnost 

 from the beginning. The fossils of beds of rock of 

 different geological ages give ns incomplete views of the 

 surface of the thicket of life, as it was in earlier times. 

 These views we have of the past aspects of the animal 

 kingdom are alwa3's much more incomplete than our 

 knowledge of the existing aspect; partly because many 

 animals, from the softness of their bodies, have left 

 either no fossil remains at all, or only very imperfect 

 casts of the external surfaces of their bodies ; and 

 partly because the turning of any animal into a fossil, 

 and its subsequent discovery by a geologist, are occa- 

 sional accidents ; but, although the evidence is much 

 less perfect than we could wish, there is enough of it 

 to convince anatomists that existing animals are all in 

 definite blood-relationship to each other, and to make 

 them, in the investigation of any new animal, study its 

 anatomy with the definite view of finding out its place 

 in the family tree of the living world. 



When Huxley made his first discoveries, entirely 

 different ideas prevailed. The animal kingdom was 

 supposed to offer a series of types, of moulds, into which 

 the Creator at the beginning of the world had cast the 

 substance of life. These types were independent of 

 each other, and had been so since the beginning of 

 things. Anatomists were concerned chiefly with sys- 

 tematic work, with detecting and recording the slight 

 differences that existed among the numbers of animals 

 grouped around each type. No attempt was made to 

 see connection between tj-pe and tj-pe, for where 

 these had been separately created there was nothing 

 to connect them except possibly some idea in the 

 mind of the Creator, This apparentl)' barren atti- 

 tude to nature was stronger in men's minds because 



