148 CLUES AND SUGGESTIONS CHAP. 



the suggestion of a very eminent and 

 most ingenious man Babbage, the in- 

 ventor of the Calculating machine. His 

 mind was full of the resources of 

 mechanical invention. He conceived 

 the idea that as such a machine as his 

 own could be made to evolve its results 

 according to a certain numerical law 

 during a given time, and then suddenly, 

 for another time, to follow a different 

 law with the same accuracy and per- 

 fection of results, so it is conceivable 

 that species might be really as constant 

 and invariable as we actually find them 

 to be, for some long periods of time 

 embracing perhaps centuries or even 

 millenniums and then suddenly, all at 

 once, evolve a new form which should 

 be equally constant, for another definite 

 time to follow. 



This notion would account for many 

 facts, and it is, of course, consistent 



