10 ORGANIC EVOLUTION 



established by a man — the grandson of Erasmus 

 Darwin — who was born in the year in which 

 Lamarck's theory saw the light. 



Meanwhile, though Lamarckism was found un- 

 convincing, evidence began to accumulate against 

 the special creation theory. There gradually grew 

 up the new-born science of geology, with which 

 Genesis was found to be incompatible. According to 

 geology, there must have been a time when there 

 was no life upon the earth, for the lowest strata 

 which the geologist could recognise contained no 

 fossils, whilst they afforded clear indication of the 

 action of intense heat. In the strata succeeding 

 these were found traces of very simple organisms. 

 Still higher up, there were signs of fishes and 

 reptiles ; whilst in strata still more recent were 

 discovered the fossil remains of mammals. It 

 certainly looked as if the higher forms of life must 

 have been developed from the lower. 



But this explanation did not satisfy the majority 

 of those days. As against the few who believed 

 that the history of the earth's crust was continuous 

 and uniform — their doctrine was called unifor- 

 mitarianism — these maintained the " catastrophic 

 theory." Certainly at one time there could only 

 have been lowly ferns and creeping things upon 

 the earth. But some cataclysm had put a term 

 to their existence; and, thereafter, the Creator, 

 " repenting Himself," had called into being higher 

 forms, themselves to be similarly destroyed and 

 similarly succeeded by forms higher still ; and so 

 on. Our astonishment at the existence of such ideas 

 may perhaps be qualified by the humiliating thought 



