ATTITUDE OF WORKING NATURALISTS. 2J:5 



wlietlier it is probable or provable tliat present species 

 are descendants of former ones which were like them, 

 but less and less like them the farther back we go. 



And it is worth noting that they all seem to be 

 utterly unconscious of wrong-doing. Their repugnance 

 to novel hypotheses is only the natural and healthy 

 one. A chano-e of a wonted line of thouo^ht is not 

 made without an effort, nor need be made without 

 adequate occasion. Some courage was required of the 

 man who first swallowed an oyster from its shell ; and 

 of most of ns the snail would still demand more. As 

 the unaccustomed food proves to be good and satis- 

 fying, and also harmless, we may come to like it. 

 That, however, which many good and eminent natural- 

 ists find to be healthful and reasonable, and others 

 innocuous, a few still regard as most unreasonable and 

 harmful. At present, we call to mind only two who 

 not only hold to the entire fixity of species as an axiom 

 or a confirmed principle, but also as a dogma, and who 

 maintain, either expressly or implicitly, that the logi- 

 cal antithesis to the creation of species as they are, is 

 not by law (which implies intention), but by chance. 

 A recent book by one of these naturalists, or rather, by 

 a geologist of eminence, the " Story of the Earth and 

 Man," by Dr. Dawson, is now before us. The title is 

 too near that of Guyot's " Earth and Man," with the 

 publication of which popular volume that distinguished 

 physical naturalist commenced his career in this coun- 

 try ; and such catch-titles are a sort of trade-mark. 

 As to the nature and merits of Dr. Dawson's work, we 

 have left ourselves space only to say : 1. That it is 

 addressed ad populum, which renders it rather the 



