i86 



Louis Agassiz. 



History must in good time become the analysis 

 of the thoughts of the creator of the universe, 

 as manifested in the animal and vegetable king- 

 doms.'* 



Agassiz's line of argument against the develop- 

 ment theory is well illustrated in the following 

 extract from a published article, The Tertiary Age^ 

 and its Characteristic Animals : 



One word more as to the relation of the Tertiary 

 mammalia to the creation which preceded them. I 

 can only repeat here the argument used before : the 

 huge quadrupeds characteristic of these epochs make 

 their appearance suddenly, and the deposits contain- 

 ing them follow as immediately upon those of the 

 Cretaceous epoch, in which no trace of them occurs, 

 as do those of the Cretaceous upon those of the 

 Jurassic epoch. I would remind the reader that in 

 the central basin of France, in which Cuvier found 

 his first Palaeotherium, and which afterwards proved 

 to have been thickly settled by the early Mammalia, 

 the deposits of the Jurassic, Cretaceous, and Tertiary 

 epochs follow each other in immediate, direct, unin- 

 terrupted succession ; that the same is true of other 

 localities, in Germany, in Southern Europe, in Eng- 

 land, where the most complete collections have been 

 made from all these deposits ; and there has never 

 been brought to light a single fact leading us to 

 suppose that any intermediate forms have ever 

 existed through which more recent types have been 

 developed out of older ones. For thirty years 

 Geology has been gradually establishing, by evi- 

 dence the fulness and accuracy of which are truly 



