58 Remarks on the Theories of PT. n. 



unanswered, I might as well abandon entirely my 

 own opinions as having been proved untenable. I 

 feel very reluctant in a treatise so slight as this to 

 engage in any controversy with so eminent an 

 authority, particularly when I feel that a cause so 

 momentous as that which I wish to advocate may 

 sustain injury by my inability to render it adequate 

 justice. No one can fail to recognise the scientific 

 and literary merits of Mr. Darwin, no one can be 

 blind to the extent of his knowledge or to his inti- 

 mate aquaintance with the whole subject of Zoology. 

 It would be the highest presumption in me to en- 

 deavour for a moment to question his authority upon 

 any of those subjects falling within the range of 

 the studies upon which he is an oracle, yet, while 

 I am glad to receive instruction from him where he 

 pours forth the ample stores of his information on 

 all the subjects of Natural History, I may be per- 

 mitted to examine the reasoning which he founds 

 upon them, and to remark upon those points in 

 which, as it appears to me, he fails to establish his 

 principles from his facts. Mr. Darwin has all the 

 zeal which naturally belongs to the inventor of a 

 novel doctrine, and it is just to him at the same 

 time to observe that it is quite free from any mix- 



