NOTE CONCLUSORY. 277 



not to speak of its gross inconsistence as an event with the 

 origin of the physical arrangements of the universe. It was 

 said, " we must reason from what we know to what we do not 

 know. We see no species originate or change in our time, 

 nor in some species has there been any change during two or 

 three thousand years." But, what if the transactions contem- 

 plated were of such a nature that we could expect no imme- 

 diate trace of them in our time, or that a thousand times three 

 thousand years were insufficient to realize them before our 

 eyes ? Very right to reason from what we know to what we 

 do not know ; but in this case let it be from the material 

 to the organic arrangements, from the embryotic progress of 

 a single being to that of the animal kingdom. Let us take 

 the facts we have, and not clamour vainly for others which are 

 unattainable. Let us judge not from a few isolated difficul- 

 ties, perhaps engendered by our ignorance, but from the 

 bearing of the whole facts, contemplated as if we had had no 

 preconception on the subject. This I have all along done, and 

 I have done nothing more. 



Thus it is that the work maintains its original ground, with- 

 out one material alteration, although with many minor modi- 

 fications designed to render it more convincing and less as- 

 sailable. Far, far it must still be from that completeness and 

 accuracy which a more experienced student of science could 

 give it ; still farther is it from what such a work might be in 

 the next age. Yet, such as it is, I once more present it with 

 unabated confidence in its general truth as a theory, and in its 

 power of beneficially affecting the opinions of my fellow- 

 creatures. As yet opposition has only tended to results which 

 have fortified the argument. Let it continue, and all of it that 

 is just will produce no effect but that of clearing away more 

 and more of the mists which prevent scientific men from see- 

 ing the true lineaments of nature. For my own part, I can 

 only congratulate myself on the difficulties which have been 

 conjured by truth and by prejudice into my path, since all of 

 them have been found superable. I can only rejoice in having 

 been led to additional study, which has shown me the world 

 of the past more and more in harmony with that of the passing 



