OBJECTIONS TO THE DARWINIAN THEORY 171 



of animals. In the earliest fossil-bearing rocks we 

 find the great groups typically represented, and in 

 some cases, such as Nautilus, Chiton, and Lingula, 

 by genera now living. We seem driven to require 

 an amount of time behind the Silurian period vastly 

 greater than that which has elapsed since ; how 

 much no one can say. 



On the other hand, physicists say we can only 

 have a certain amount of time ; for the earth is 

 cooling, and it is a matter of calculation how long it 

 has been cool enough for life to be possible. 

 If evolution has really occurred, there must have 

 been time, and the question for the biologist is 

 whether there is evidence of evolution or not. 

 Embryology suggests that the rate of change may 

 be more rapid than is commonly suspected. 



Evidence ok Design and Forethought. 



This is a subject a little difficult to touch upon 

 without trenching on matters which I wish to avoid. 

 The evidence of adaptation of means to ends is espe- 

 cially manifest when we find contrivance or beauty. 

 That there is harmony everywhere between animals 

 and plants and their environment is undoubted ; yet 

 it appears to have escaped the notice of the objectors 

 that this is the very essence of the theory of Natural 

 Selection. That there is evidence that any animals 

 or plants are specially designed to satisfy the wants 

 or to delio-ht the senses of man is most absolutely 

 denied ; and could such cases be proved, they would 

 be fatal to the whole theory. In Nature those 



