OF ORGANIC NATURE. 31 



are to be discovered in the Past history of the living 

 world, in the past conditions of organic nature. We 

 have, to-night, to deal with the facts of that history — 

 a history involving periods of time before which our 

 mere human records sink into utter insignificance — a 

 history the variety and physical magnitude of w^hose 

 events cannot even be foreshadowed by the history of 

 human life and human phenomena— a history of the 

 most varied aud complex character. 



We must deal with the history, then, in the first 

 place, as we should deal with all other histories. The 

 historical student knows that his first business should 

 be to inquire into the validity of his evidence, and the 

 nature of the record in which the evidence is contain- 

 ed, that he may be able to form a proper estimate of 

 the correctness of the conclusions which have been 

 drawn from that evidence. So, here, we must pass, in 

 the first place, to the consideration of a matter which 

 may seem foreign to the question under discussion. 

 We must dwell upon the nature of the records, and 

 the credibility of the evidence they contain ; we must 

 look to the completeness or incompleteness of those 

 records themselves, before we turn to that which they 

 contain and reveal. The question of the credibility of 

 the history, happily for us, will not require much con- 

 sideration, for, in this history, unlike those of human 

 origin, there can be no cavilling, no differences as to 

 the reality and truth of the facts of which it is made 

 up ; the facts state themselves, and are laid out clearly 

 before us. 



But, although one of the greatest difficulties of the 

 historical student is cleared out of our path, there are 

 ^ther difficulties — difficulties in rightly interpreting the 



