ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. cxliii 



ther the creation was formed as a whole, and members of it were 

 allowed to perish at certain intervals, corresponding to the successive 

 physical conditions of the earth ; or, the whole creation being men- 

 tally determined by the Creator, those portions of it only which 

 corresponded to the conditions of the earth's crust at each epoch 

 were called successively into existence, various classes and genera 

 attaining therefore the highest development under circumstances 

 best suited to the requirements of their organization ; or, the final 

 result having been conceived by creative intelligence, and certain 

 members only of the great whole called into existence, like points on 

 the circumference of a circle, and imbued with such a power of 

 vital development, as should cause them in successive ages to fill up 

 the whole space with an infinite variety of organic beings. The 

 great discovery of Von Baer, of the existence of lower forms in the 

 embryo-state of higher animals, has been supposed by specula- 

 tive philosophers to favour the theory of development ; but it does 

 no more than prove that, whilst the animal is obliged to live under 

 conditions difPerent from those of his complete organization, no new 

 form of organization is adopted, but simply one of those belonging 

 to animals who ordinarily live under such conditions ; and, though 

 the perfect animal has passed through such changes, the successive 

 developments exhibited during the embryonic life of an animal, 

 or during the period of a few weeks or months, or perhaps a year, 

 can neither be taken as a proof of a separate individual existence, 

 under either of the embryonic types, nor represent the changes which 

 the same animal, as a species, may have really passed through in 

 countless ages : on the contrary, it is more reasonable to suppose 

 that this involved structure was adopted at the first creation of 

 each species, and indicates only the simplicity and harmony of 

 natural laws. If, however, the organic creation was effected as one 

 great whole, and gradually diminished by the dropping-out of many 

 of its links, either by generic or by specific death, how can we 

 account for the total absence in the deposits of early times of any 

 traces of the now living animals which were then co-existent with 

 those of w^hom such abundant records have been preserved ? To 

 me it seems impossible to adopt such a theory without combining 

 with it that of development. For not only must certain forms of 

 organization have disappeared, but others must have so varied as no 

 longer to be recognized as identical with those which have been 

 revealed to us in the stony tablet of the earth. 



I have already, more than once, alluded to the theory of colonies, 

 proposed by M. Barrande, and I cannot deny myself the pleasure 

 of once more recurring to it, and pointing out its great importance. 

 Whilst then regretting, more than condemning, that ill-judged zeal, 

 which, seeking to restrict the inquiries of man, by insistmg that 

 he shall take all his opinions of creation from that one book given 

 unto man for a totally different object, I cannot but observe that the 

 real history of the creation given in the Bible affords a wholesome 

 caution to all those ~who endeavour to explain every act of the 

 Creator as if He had been a man. Except as regards man, 



