240 



EXPLANATIONS. 



ent view was first hinted at; and in the fourth It waa 

 sketched, though with liability to correction ; thus anti- 

 cipating by some months the publication of the criticism 

 to which I am adverting. I need hardly remark, that in 

 all criticism, the actual subject criticised must be brought 

 forward for comment, and nothing else ; otherwise the 

 commentaries become of no imaginable use but to obscure 

 true judgment. Now the Edinburgh reviewer has pre- 

 sented his subject, in this instance, in lineaments en- 

 tirely of his own imagining, and directly in contradiction 

 to those which belong to it. He had no title to assume 

 any plan of development and to represent his victory 

 over that as a triumph over the hypothesis of his author. 

 In such conduct he has thoroughly vitiated the whole 

 fabric of his criticism, and left it, in reality, no preten- 

 sion to remain for a moment in court. My immediate 

 object, ^however, is not to take such exceptions against 

 him, but to show how the ascertained facts of a limited 

 portion of the field of nature may be reconciled with that 

 conception to which a view of what appears over the 

 whole field may lead an honest inquirer. 



If the hypothesis of a plurality of genetic lines be ad- 

 mitted, we are not of course to ask which order of rep- 

 tiles, or of any other class, first existed (such being the 

 language of the old classification ;) but, having first set- 

 tled the whole affinities of the animal kingdom on the new 

 plan, we are to inquire if the geological presentment ol 

 the families was accordant with the scheme, allowing for 

 the negative nature of much of the geological evidence 

 of this land. .Now, in the first place, the affinities of the 

 animal kingdom are only in part made out; in the second, 

 geological evidence is only partial. We are clearly, 

 therefore, not to expect in nature's museum a full exhibi- 

 tion of any one entire stirps, as it may be supposed to 

 have passed through its successive stages up to our time 

 All that we can expect is a succession of fossils marking 

 out portions of what we may suppose likely yet to be es- 

 tablished as lines of animal descent. Blanks, and large 

 ones too, must be allowed for ; possible errors as to the 

 animal pedigrees must be contemplated. But if we have 

 any ground for generalizing in a particular direction, as I 

 think there is in this case, we may be held as called upon 

 not to conclude hastily and rashly on the unfavorable 

 side, but to look and consider patiently, and to suspend 



