16 



prototype, of which we know nothing, furnished with a floating- 

 apparatus or swim bladder." 



I believe "It is conceivable, that the now utterly lost branchiae 

 might have been gradually worked in by Natural Selection for some 

 quite distinct purpose, in the same manner as . . .it is probable 

 that organs which at a very ancient period served for respiration, 

 have been actually converted into organs of flight." ! 



I believe that the opinion of Dr. Carpenter on the non- 

 progressive character of the Foraminfera is as valuable as that of 

 "any other man in England" ('except myself): and therefore 

 whereas Dr. Carpenter distinctly asserts that there has been '' no 

 advance in the Foraminiferous type from the Palaeozoic period to 

 the present time," and states his conviction that " the present 

 state of scientific evidence, instead of sanctioning the idea that 

 the primitive descendants of the type or types of Foraminifera 

 can ever rise to any higher grade, justifies the anti-Darwinian 

 inference that however widely they diverge from each other and 

 from their origins, they still remain Foraminifera" I believe that 

 as I think differently from him, he must be wrong, and I must 

 be right. Q.E.D. 



I believe that an assertion "not proven" is as good as, or 

 better than, one that is proved. Time will tell. 



I believe that I must admit Dr. Carpenter's assertion as an 

 " absolute matter of fact;" but for all that, as it does not suit my 

 theory, I must hold that "as we do not know under what forms, 

 or how, life originated in this world, it would be rash to assert 

 that even such lowly endowed animals as the Foraminifera with 

 their beautiful shells, as figured by Dr. Carpenter, have not in 

 any degree advanced in organization !" 



I believe, therefore, that we can thus "partly recall" the 

 former condition of our earlier progenitors; though even that 

 "partly" is in imagination/" Thus! too, we can "approximately 

 place them in their proper position" (" in iimiiji nation"). " We 

 thus learn," also " in imagination" about the " tail and pointed 

 ears," "probably derived" from something or from something else 

 ( u some reptile-like, or some amphibian-like creature") or "this 

 again from some fish-like animal." Thus 4i in the dim obscurity of 



