IV OKNESTS VERSUS NATURE 



his authority, and I should have thereby escaped 

 the appearance of making an attack on Mr. Glad- 

 stone himself, which is in every way distasteful to 

 me. 



For I can meet the statement in the last para- 

 graph of the above citation with nothing but a 

 direct negative. If I know anything at all about 

 the results attained by the natural science of our 

 time, it is " a demonstrated conclusion and estab- 

 lished fact " that the " fourfold order " given by 

 Mr. Gladstone is not that in which the evidence at- 

 om* disposal tends to show that the water, air, and 

 land-populations of the globe have made their 

 appearance. 



Perhaps I may be told that Mr. Gladstone does 

 give his authority that he cites Cuvier, Sir John 

 Herschel, and Dr. Whewell in support of his case. 

 If that has been Mr. Gladstone's intention in men- 

 tioning these eminent names, I may remark that, 

 on this particular question, the only relevant 

 authority is that of Cuvier. But great as Cuvier 

 was, it is to be remembered that, as Mr. Gladstone 

 incidentally remarks, he cannot now be called a 

 recent authority. In fact, he has been dead more 

 than half a century ; and the palseontology of our 

 day is related to that of his, very much as the 

 geography of the sixteenth century is related to 

 that of the fourteenth. Since 1832, when Cuvier 

 died, not only a new world, but new worlds, of 

 ancient life have been discovered ; and those who 



