Notices of New Books. 



8269 



" Tlie system of the growth and the changes in form of each species 

 represents the system or the classification of all species. — The system 

 or the classification of animals is wholly in unison with their chrono- 

 logical distribution, or with their creation in successive geological 

 epochs, and accordingly affords innumerable illustrations of the law 

 ' of degradation or of lateral development, which is manifest in all the 

 successive subdivisions of the animal kingdom. This law is also appa- 

 rent in every species, by the comparison of the early state with the 

 final state of the creature, and of one part of the structure with another 

 part." — (P. 20). 



In the next and only other paragraph I shall cite I must invite atten- 

 tion to the assertion u the epochs are longer and longer in proportion 

 as they are more remote, &c." Is there not a more obvious truth sus- 

 ceptible of this explanation ? " the epochs are more and more obscure, 

 their diagnostics are more and more concealed from us in proportion 

 as they are more remote." 



" The retrogressive lengthening of the epochs. — The few thousand 

 years which have elapsed since the beginning of the distinctly recorded 

 epoch of man are a very brief period when compared to the shortest 

 of the preceding epochs ; and the epochs are longer and longer in 

 proportion as they are more remote from the present one, and when 

 they are retraced one by one they appear to be successively more 

 immeasurable. The epochs of mammals and of reptiles, though they 

 are long when compared with that of mankind, are very short when 

 compared with the epochs of fishes and of mollusks ; and the whole 

 animal period, although it extends over unnumbered millions of millions 

 of years, is very brief when it is compared to the preceding time, 

 which was unattended by forms of life. In the creation it apparently 

 lengthens backwards to countless repetitions of the above-mentioned 

 numbers. This fact helps to demonstrate the everlasting continuauce 

 of progress." — (P. 21). 



In conclusion I need only add that this pamphlet exhibits great 

 learning and the most profound thought: it ought to be read by every 

 naturalist; but I cannot venture to say that the views it discloses are 

 in accordance with my own, or that they are likely to meet with any 

 very extensive reception, even in the present day, when Mr. Darwin's 

 labours have led discursive minds to transform Natural History into a 

 speculative study rather than an aggregation of facts. 



Edward Newman. 



