SOME GENERAL CONCLUSIONS 



285 



modern period, and endeavouring to discover which 

 of our so-called species are original types and 

 which are mere derivative varieties or races. 



It is evident that nothing is gained here by- 

 assuming that the whole geological record is but 

 one of innumerable vast aeons of a;ons, which have 

 gone on in endless succession. If the world is 

 made to stand on an elephant, and this on a tor- 

 toise, and this on lower forms, it helps us not at 

 all if the last supporter must stand on nothing. 

 The difficulty thus postponed only becomes greater ; 

 and at the end we have to imagine, not only life 

 and organization, but even matter and energy as 

 fortuitously originating or creating themselves, un- 

 less produced by an Almighty Eternal Will. 



In pursuing studies of this kind, it is best for 

 the present to content ourselves with tracing the 

 continuous chains of similar creatures throughout 

 their extension in geological time, rather than to 

 seek for connecting links between different lines of 

 being. I endeavoured some years ago to give a 

 popular outline of this method in a little work en- 

 titled " The Chain of Life in Geological Time." ^ 



* Religious Tract Society, London ; Revell Publishing Co., 

 New York, Chicago, and Toronto. 



