318 SPARKS FROM A GEOLOGIST'S HAMMER. 



that the hyperbola had descended from the parabola, and 

 this from the ellipse, and this from the circle or even, by 

 disappearance of the minor axis, from a straight line" 

 (p. 13). So again, speaking of the works of human art, 

 he says : " If, for instance, it be said that the Gothic 

 cathedral was developed from the Romanic, and this from 

 the basilica, and this again from some sort of Roman 

 market-hall ; and if, further, it be possible to point out 

 an insensible gradation from one structure to another, no 

 one would consider himself, for these reasons, authorized 

 to conclude that any given structure in the Gothic style 

 had been produced by an actual transformation of the 

 circular arch into the pointed arch. True, there exists 

 here a genetic outgrowth of one type out of another, but 

 yet only in an ideal sense, not in the actual structure. 

 That is, the genesis is a fact, not as something external, 

 but as a psychological genesis of thought and artistic 

 ideal, one conception becoming historically developed out 

 of the other"(pp. 15-16). 



The palseontological evidence as proof of the derivative 

 origin of species has been publicly discussed by Professor 

 Huxley, and I invite the reader's attention to an examina- 

 tion of his method, as presented in the following chapter. 



