et Imbecillitale Darwiniana. 61 



a position to ban as miraculous every power 

 which we do not understand. But that 

 which can only be effected by power cannot 

 be explained by impotence. Darwin denies 

 Nature : but Nature gives the lie to Darwin : 

 and she will endure longer than his reputa- 

 tion, which rests only on the sand of a logi- 

 cally uneducated public opinion. 



IX. 



Let us look without prejudice at this 

 matter, this question of the origin of the 

 inhabitants of the earth, in the light of what 

 we actually do KNOW. 



We know (thanks chiefly to William 

 Smith) that during a long series of ages, 

 of unknown duration, many different kinds 

 of animals and plants have successively ap- 

 peared and disappeared. And from certain 

 similarities and resemblances and other in- 



