488 CONCLUSION. Chap. XIV. 



others ; it follows, that the amount of organic change in 

 the fossils of consecutive formations probably serves as a 

 fair measure of the lapse of actual time. A number of 

 species, however, keeping in a body might remain for a 

 long period unchanged, whilst within this same period, 

 several of these species, by migrating into new countries 

 and coming into competition with foreign associates, 

 might become modified; so that we must not overrate 

 the accuracy of organic change as a measure of time. 

 During early periods of the earth's history, when the 

 forms of life were probably fewer and simpler, the rate 

 of change was probably slower ; and at the first dawn 

 of life, when very few forms of the simplest structure 

 existed, the rate of change may have been slow in an 

 extreme degree. The whole history of the world, as at 

 present known, although of a length quite incompre- 

 hensible by us, will hereafter be recognised as a mere 

 fragment of time, compared with the ages which have 

 elapsed since the first creature, the progenitor of innu- 

 merable extinct and living descendants, was created. 



In the distant future I see open fields for far more 

 important researches. Psychology will be based on a 

 new foundation, that of the necessary acquirement of 

 each mental power and capacity by gradation. Light 

 will be thrown on the origin of man and his history, 



Authors of the highest eminence seem to be fully 

 satisfied with the view that each species has been inde- 

 pendently created. To my mind it accords better with 

 what we know of the laws impressed on matter by the 

 Creator, that the production and extinction of the past 

 and present inhabitants of the world should have been 

 due to secondary causes, like those determining the 

 birth and death of the individual. When I view all 

 beings not as special creations, but as the lineal de- 

 scendants of some few beings which lived long before the 



