8 



with branchiae, with the two sexes united in the same individual, and 

 with the most important organs of the body (such as the brain and 

 heart) imperfectly developed. This animal seems to hare 'been more 

 like the larva of our existing marine Ascidians than any other known 

 form." (Quite so !) 



I believe that an argument based on that which seems, is quite 

 as valuable as one based on that which is ; that a chain with gaps 

 in the links, is quite as firmly held together as one without : and to 

 lack no evidence but that of facts is amply sufficient for me, of which 

 the following will serve for examples. 



I believe " / cannot doubt, that the theory of descent with modi- 

 fication embraces all the members of the same class." " / can indeed 

 hardly doubt that all vertebrate animals having- true lungs are descended 

 by ordinary generation from an ancient prototype, of which we know 

 nothing, furnished with a floating apparatus or swim bladder." 



I believe " It -is conceivable, that the now utterly lost braiichise 

 might hare been gradually worked in by natural selection for some 

 quite distinct purpose, in the same manner as ... it /'.? probable 

 that organs which at a very ancient period served for respiration, 

 have been actually converted into organs of flight." 



I believe that the opinion of Dr. Carpenter on the non-progressive 

 character of the Foraminifera is as valuable as that of "any other 

 man in England" (except myself) : and therefore whereas Dr. Carpenter 

 distinctly asserts that there has been " no advance in the Foraminif'er- 

 ous type from the Palasozoic period to the present time," and states 

 his conviction that " the present state of scientific evidence, instead of 

 sanctioning the idea that the primitive descendants of the type or typi-s 

 of Foraminifera can ever rise to any higher grade, justifies the antl- 

 Darminian inference, that however widely they diverge from each other 

 and from their origins, they still remain Foraminifera," I believe that 

 as I think differently from him, he must be wrong, and I must 

 be right. Q.E.D. 



I believe that an assertion " not proven" is as good as, or better 

 than, one that is proved. 



I believe that I must admit Dr. Carpenter's assertion as an " abso- 

 lute matter of fact ;" but for all that, as it does not suit my theory,. 

 I must hold that " as we do not know under what forms, or how, life 

 originated in this world, it would be rash to assert that even such 

 lowly endowed animals as the Foraminifera, with their beautiful shells, 

 as figured by Dr. Carpenter, have not in any degree advanced in 

 organization !" 



I believe, therefore, that we can thus ''partly recall" the former 

 condition of our earlier progenitors ; though even that ''partly" is in 

 imagination!'''' Thus! too, Ave can ''approximately place them in their 

 proper position" (" in imagination"). " We thus learn," also "in imagina- 

 tion," about the "tail and pointed ears," '"jjroltally derived" from 

 something or from something else (" some reptile-like, or some amphibian- 

 like creature") or " this again from some fish-like animal." Thus " in 

 the dim obscurity of the past, we can see" (?) what this animal "must 

 have been ;" or what I must after all own it to have been. 



I believe this is a highly satisfactory and conclusive tesult of the 

 "eleven years" labour I have expended on my last publication. 



I believe that all the wisest men in the world for the six thousand 

 years since it is commonly supposed to have been created, or six 

 hundred thousand million years, or any number more, as I believe, 

 have been altogether wrong, and that it has been reserved for me in 

 this so-called nineteenth century to set them all right and lay down 

 the law for ever. 



