CHAPTER. V, 
PALAONTOLOGY. 
THE present Chapter will be devoted to a con- 
sideration of the evidence of organic evolution 
which has been furnished by the researches of geo- 
logists. On account of its direct or historical nature, 
this branch of evidence is popularly regarded as the 
most important—so much so, indeed, that in the 
opinion of most educated persons the whole doctrine 
of organic evolution must stand or fall according to 
the so-called “ testimony of the rocks.” Now, without 
at all denying the peculiar importance of this line of 
evidence, I must begin by remarking that it does not 
present the denominating importance which popular 
judgment assigns to it. For although popular judg- 
ment is right in regarding the testimony of the rocks 
as of the nature of a history, this judgment, as a rule, 
is very inadequately acquainted with the great imper- 
fections of that history. Knowing in a general way 
what magnificent advances the science of geology has 
made during the present century, the public mind is 
more or less imbued with the notion, that because 
we now possess a tolerably complete record of the 
chronological succession of geological formations, we 
must therefore possess a correspondingly complete 
