13 



part of the next, and with nothing higher in the scale of creation 

 than fishes in even the upper part of it. Never mind that ; facts are 

 not stubborn things when they have to do with me. I make them all 

 bend and yield to me. Veni, rldl, "lei! 



I believe that there must have been some ancestor of the trilobite, 

 ' which probably differs from any known animal," long before that 

 curious creature ; but for proof of it I refer you to the invisible 

 world, whither no one has yet travelled to find it. What more would 

 you have ? 



I believe that these most ancient of old rocks, whose existence 

 you will find ample proof of in my " imagination," were " somewhere 

 accumulated," but where that " somewhere " was or is I am not going 

 to tellyou, so you may save yourself the trouble of asking me. 



I believe there were and are such rocks many miles thick, if only 

 we could find them. 



I believe that the sudden appearance of whole groups of species 

 in some strata by no means overturns my doctrine of slow descent by 

 natural selection, though Sedgwick, Agassiz, and others have main- 

 tained that it does. YVhat does anyone but myself know about the 

 matter ? Geology as at present understood must be false if my Theory 

 is true, and as my theory must be true because it is mine, e'en so 

 let it be. Flat Erolutio, mat ecelum. 



I believe that though geologists tell us that certain animals cannot 

 be found in any geological formation before certain periods, which is tanta- 

 mount to a high probability that they never did exist in them, I assert 

 that they did exist, basing my assertion on the main stay of negative 

 evidence. 



It is true that when it suits my purpose I can turn round and 

 argue that negative evidence is worthless. 



I believe this is not too barefaced a piece of contradiction to palm 

 off on the credulity of weak-minded persons. 



I believe that the geological record is imperfect to an " extreme 

 degree," but if you can bring yourself at my dictation to disbelieve the 

 facts which geology does attest, then you see you will take in my 

 theory, and si poptdus vult decipi decipiatur. 



I believe that the extinct rhinoceros was more advantageously 

 organised than the existing one, so that it ought, on my theory, to 

 have " infallibly exterminated the inferior ones." The contrary is before 

 me, but black I always make white when I choose. 



I believe that in the race for existence the weakest must succumb 

 to the stronger, though I see before my eyes that the whole of creation 

 contradicts this. 



I believe that there must have been, and therefore were, an infinite 

 number of previous forms of the large elephant and the mighty mam- 

 moth, though the fragment even of the remains of not one of these 

 has ever been discovered, while those of the most fragile a^d delicate 

 shells are found in abundance in the chalk in the lower rocks. 



I believe anything and everything as it suits my purpose. 



I believe that natural selection selects itself, that nature has a 

 " power of selection," that she is more powerful than " feeble man," so 

 that if he can do so much in improving animals, why can't she do all 

 I choose to imagine, only time enough be given beyond the power of 

 imagination. 



I believe that if feeble man can do so much, I can see no limit to 

 the amount of change, to the beauty and infinite complexity which may 

 be effected in the long course of time by " Nature's power of selection" 

 so that " powerful" nature is superior to feeble man. It is true I have 

 argued elsewhere that natural selection spurns beauty, and that if it 



