24 



may call this what you like, but that is my opinion, which is final. 

 You ask for proof, do you ? That may be all very well for a 

 Euclid, but not for a Darwin. 



I believe that no trace even of such organic life has been 

 detected in the basement of the strata of the rocks, it being 

 destitute of the remains of any animals, so that I have no evidence 

 of my theory, Ifut it matters not. Evidence to prove it is not 

 wanted by a person like me. I maintain that it is indubitable 

 that life swarmed in that primitive region, though we only 

 meet with the lowest creatures at the lower part of the 

 next, and with nothing higher in the scale of creation than 

 fishes in even the upper part of it. Never mind that; facts 

 are not stubborn things when they have to do with me. I make 

 them all bend and yield to me. Vent , vidi, vici ! 



I believe that there must have been some ancestor of the 

 trilobite, " which probably differs from any known animal," long 

 before that curious creature, but for proof of it I refer you to 

 the invisible world, whither no one has yet travelled to find it. 

 What more would you have ? 



I believe that these most ancient of old rocks, whose existence 

 you will find ample proof of in my " Imagination," were "some- 

 where accumulated," but where that " somewhere" was or is I am 

 not going to tell you, so you may save yourself the trouble of 

 asking me. 



I believe there were and are such rocks many miles thick, if 

 only we could find them. Is it my fault if they cannot be 

 found ? I appeal to your fairness and sense of justice to answer 

 me that question. 



I believe that the sudden appearance of whole groups of 

 species in some strata by no means overturns my doctrine of slow 

 descent by Natural Selection, though Sedgwick, Agassiz, and 

 others have maintained that it does. What does anyone but 

 myself know about the matter ? Geology as at present under- 

 stood must be false if my Theory is true, and as my theory must 

 be true because it is mine, e'en so let it I.e. Fiat Evolutio^ mat 

 cceluin. 



I believe that though geologists tell us that certain animals 

 cannot be found in any geological formation before certain 



