DARWIN. 



131 



destructive work of the irregular motions of the sea, and 

 the partly destructive, partly formative work of its regu- 

 lar currents. Calculations were made of the ploughing, 

 grating, and grinding of glaciers, of the substances 

 which mineral springs dissolve and deposit, of the dis- 

 placements of material effected by existing agencies, of 

 the manner in which the outlines of land and sea are 

 altered by elevation and subsidence. Similarly, the 

 comparison of ancient and modern coral reefs and 

 oyster banks showed that these silent builders have not 

 changed their habits. In short, the hypothesis of ex- 

 traordinary events and forces, unheard of in our present 

 era, seemed quite unnecessary; time only, and the con- 

 tinuous development of the earth's crust, were rendered 

 evident. 



The stage for reiterated acts of new creation of organ- 

 isms had thus collapsed, and the hypothesis of such 

 miraculous new creations became an anachronism, for 

 which a well-merited end was inevitably prepared by the 

 appearance of Darwin. With Darwinism, the doctrine 

 of Descent is an historical necessity. 



, Charles Darwin was born in 1809, and, as the Natu- 

 ralist attached to the Beagle in her voyage round the 

 world, under Captain Fitzroy, in 183 1-7, he enjoyed an 

 opportunity of accumulating rich experiences. His im- 

 portant work on Coral Reefs gave the first adequate ex- 

 planation of the phenomena resulting from the co- 

 operation of geological movements, and the organic 

 agency of the coral animal ; his Monograph on Cirripedes 

 bears witness to the exemplary care with which he can 

 observe and systematically work out the relations of the 

 minutest details. We make this remark, as the op- 



