THE STATE GEOLOGIST. 33 



And then, with a few more words, which we do not distinctly 

 remember, we separated. * * * And so it is, in youth the 

 older naturalists of the present generation were taught the doc- 

 trine of creation by sudden, cataclysmic, mechanical 'creative' 

 acts; and those to whose lot it fell to come in contact with the 

 ultimate facts and principles of the new biology had to unlearn 

 this view, and gradually to work out a larger, more profound, 

 wider-reaching, and more philosophic conception of creation." 



One of the chief merits of palaeontology is that it has within 

 recent years brought to light a wealth of facts which establish 

 beyond dispute the continuity of life; and reveal, often in most 

 circumstantial manner, how modern forms have been derived 

 from antecedent forms, thus pointing to the conclusion that all 

 animals and plants have sprung from a few primitive common 

 ancestors. Though now all but universally accepted, the doctrine 

 of evolution has been long in gaining ascendancy over the minds 

 of men, and we are unable to declare that the newer views are 

 at variance with the time-honored teleological explanation. Any- 

 one who has read the late Professor Joseph Le Conte's "Evolu- 

 tion in Relation to Religious Thought," or Huxley's "Scientific 

 Essays," or similar works, must have been convinced that the 

 evolutionary hypothesis strengthens rather than weakens the claim 

 that the workings of Nature are but the expression of a divine 

 intelligence. There are those who maintain it is unnecessary to 

 conjure up a dens ex machina to explain physical processes; and 

 opposed to these there are others, rather in the majority we think, 

 who declare that the whole system would be unintelligible with- 

 out purposeful design — hence the assertion that the present order 

 of things has come about as the result of hazard is contrary to 

 our senses. 



Palaeontology may not hope to answer such vital and far-reach- 

 ing questions as these; and yet it is not vain to' expect from it 

 light concerning the nature of the problems involved, and con- 

 cerning our manner of viewing them. A very learned,- very high- 

 minded, very reverent palaeontologist, for many years President 

 of one of the sections of the French Academy, has thus apos- 

 trophized the sources of our information in regard to creation : 

 "We cannot refrain from looking with curious admiration upon 

 3 GE01, 



