WHAT IS DARWINISM? 133 



These human explanations are not only 

 without authority, but they are very mutable. 

 They change not only from generation to gen- 

 eration, but almost as often as the phases of 

 the moon. It is a fact that the planets move. 

 Once it was said that they were moved by 

 spirits, then by vortexes, now by self-evolved 

 forces. It is hard that we should be called upon 

 to change our faith with every new moon. The 

 same man sometimes propounds theories almost 

 as rapidly as the changes of the kaleidoscope. 

 The amiable Sir Charles Lyell, England's 

 most distinguished geologist, has published 

 ten editions of his " Principles of Geology," 

 which so differ as to make it hard to believe 

 that it is the work of the same mind. " In all 

 the editions up to the tenth, he looked upon 

 geological facts and geological phenomena as 

 proving the fixity of species and their special 

 creation in time. In the tenth edition, just 

 published, he announces his change of opinion 

 on this subject and his conversion to the doc- 

 trine of development by law." 1 " In the eighth 

 edition of his work," says Dr. Bree, " Sir 

 Charles Lyell, the Nestor of geologists, to 



1 Fallacies in the Hypothesis of Mr. Darwin, by C. R. Bree, 

 M. D., F. Z. S. London, 1872, p. 290. 



