Clxii PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



created unlike other animals, as one species only, or was created in 

 numerous species adapted to the physical conditions of various local- 

 ities, such as we now find them. The latter question is intimately 

 connected with the first ; for if we once satisfy ourselves that the 

 races of men found in portions of the earth, which during the historic 

 period could have had no possible connexion with the seat of the 

 leading race of men, must have been independent creations, there is 

 no absurdity in considering that they are remains of the organic 

 human inhabitants of some earlier stage in the earth's progressive 

 change. However, independent of any such speculation, M. Agassiz has 

 adduced strong reasons for admitting an original plurality of human 

 species, in his contribution to the work of Nott and Gliddon on " the 

 indigenous races of the earth;" and after advocating the judicious 

 principle, " that in the study of the races of man much light might 

 be derived from a careful comparison of their peculiar characteristics 

 with those of [the lower] animals," he selects the monkeys as being 

 most nearly allied to man, and points out the differences of opinion 

 which have existed amongst the most able naturalists as to the unity 

 or diversity of species in some of the tribe — as, for example, in the 

 orang-outans, those of Borneo, Java, and Sumatra being considered 

 by some eminent naturalists such as Wagner as constituting only one 

 species, whereas others, as Professor Owen and the American natu- 

 ralist Jeffreys Wyman, consider them as constituting three distinct 

 species. 



The singular manner in which particular races are localized within 

 narrow limits, as if specially adapted to them, is compared with the 

 similar adaptation of the races of men to special localities ; and it is 

 urged that there is equal reason to consider that man has, like the 

 monkey tribe, been originally created in varieties or in species, fitted 

 for the regions to which they were to be attached. The philological 

 argument for the unity of man is also discussed on the same principle 

 of comparison with animals, in which a similarity of language, as it 

 may be called, may be traced over the whole world amongst animals 

 or birds of the same families. 



These are not flattering, but they are philosophical views of the 

 subject ; and I dwell upon them, not with the desire of enforcing 

 any opinion against the conviction of conscientious men of any creed 

 or doctrine, but simply for the purpose of claiming for geologists the 

 right of studying the works of nature on scientific principles alone. 

 Even then we must be often obliged to modify our opinions, and to 

 give up our most cherished theories ; for it must be recollected that 

 our science is even yet in a course of growth, and that the light of each 

 new day may enable us to discover new facts and to correct old errors, 

 just as the increasing power of the telescope enables the astronomer 

 to penetrate into stellar spaces before veiled from his vision. In truth, 

 the age of blind belief has passed from geology, and everything is now 

 brought to the test of rigid examination : for example, how long 

 have we now admitted as a demonstrated truth, though at first not 

 an undisputed one, that the heat of springs, &c, was due to the 

 communication to them of internal heat, proceeding from the still 



