160 WHAT IS DARWINISM t 



the surface of the waters. Corresponding 

 changes have occurred in the state of the at- 

 mosphere surrounding the globe, and in the 

 temperature of the earth. Accompanying or 

 following these revolutions new classes of plants 

 and animals appear, adapted to the new condi- 

 tion of the earth's surface. Whence do they 

 come ? They have, as Dawson expresses it, 

 neither fathers nor mothers. Nothing pre- 

 cedes them from which they could be derived ; 

 and nothing of the same kind follows them. 

 They live through their appointed period ; and 

 then, in a multitude of cases, finally disappear, 

 and are in their turn followed by new orders 

 or kinds. In other words, the links or con- 

 necting forms of this assumed regular succes- 

 sion or derivation are not to be found. This 

 fact is so patent, that Hugh Miller, when argu- 

 ing against the doctrine of evolution as pro- 

 posed in the " Vestiges of Creation," says, that 

 the record in the rocks seems to have been 

 written for the very purpose of proving that 

 such evolution is impossible. 



We have the explicit testimony of Agassiz, 

 as a Palaeontologist, that the facts of geology 

 contradict the theory of the transmutation of 

 species. This testimony has been repeatedly 



