342 QBOUPS OF ALLIED aPECIES. 



existed, we do not find infinitely numerous fine transitional 

 forms closely joining them all together. The sudden man- 

 ner in which several groups of species first appear in our 

 European formations, the almost entire absence, as at 

 present known, of formations rich in fossils beneath 

 the Cambrian strata, are all undoubtedly of the most 

 serious nature. We see this in the fact that the most em- 

 inent palaeontologists, namely, Cuvier, Agassiz, Barrande, 

 Pictet, Falconer, E. Forbes, etc., and all our greatest geol- 

 ogists, as Lyell, Murchison, Sedgwick, etc., have unani- 

 mously, often vehemently, maintained the immutability of 

 species. But Sir Charles Lyell now giyes the support of 

 his high authority to the opposite side, and most geologists 

 and palaeontologists are much shaken in their former belief. 

 Those who believe that the geological record is in any de- 

 gree perfect, will undoubtedly at once reject the theory. 

 For my part, following out Lyell's metaphor, I look at the 

 geological record as a history of the world imperfectly kept 

 and written in a changing dialect. Of this history we pos- 

 sess the last volume alone, relating only to two or tliree 

 countries. Of this volume, only here and there a short 

 chapter has been preserved, and of each page, only here 

 and there a few lines. Each word of the slowly-changing 

 language, more or less different in the successive chapters, 

 may represent the forms of life, which are entombed in 

 our consecutive formations, and which falsely appear 

 to have been abruptly introduced. On this view the 

 difficulties above discussed are greatly diminished or even 

 disappear. 



