85 
their feet left in sandstone, that the tallest man might 
have walked underneath their huge legs. So again, when we 
come to the higher strata in which quadrupedal mammals 
became imbedded by some convulsion of nature, what was their 
earliest character? We find the sagacious elephant, now ex- 
tinct save in Africa and Asia, — and there restricted to two 
existing species, — we find it almost over all the old world, and 
a closely allied genus occupying its place in the new. “ Most 
certainly all the geological facts (says Hugh Miller) are hostile 
to the Lamarckian conclusion,” — which Mr. Darwin has only 
rechauffeed and served up with some ingenious trimmings. 
“ As if (continues the author of The Testimony of the Rocks ) 
with the express intention of preventing so gross a mis-read- 
ing of the record, we find in at least two classes of animals — 
the fishes and reptiles — the higher races placed at the begin- 
ning.” To quote, with some modifications, from another 
writer : — Thus it is too with birds and quadrupeds. Where 
deepest down in the earth/ s strata their remains appear, they 
show no evidence of just emerging from a lower order. They 
stand forth in full development, and usually of giant size, com- 
pared with such of the same orders as occupy a super-position. 
Indeed, the evidence of geology most naturally tends to the 
conclusion, that each of the successive races of creatures, 
found imbedded in the earth, was created in its highest state 
of perfection ; and that the varieties of the same orders after- 
wards found, testify rather to a process of degradation than 
to a process of development towards a higher class.* 
Finally — as regards the phenomena of embryology, and the 
marked similarity in all organic development, and the exist- 
ence of what are called “rudimentary organs,” occasion- 
ally not developed, — they appear to me only to teach that all 
organic growth proceeds upon common vital principles and 
laws, which, the true theory of creation enables us to under- 
stand, must have been ordained by infinite Wisdom and with 
beneficent Design. To establish this, however, is not my 
present task ; which has been only to endeavour to prove that 
Mr. Darwin's theory, as advocated by Mr. Warington, is utterly 
incredible . 
Captain Fishbourne. — I rise to speak on this subject, in order to look at 
it from a common-sense point of view, and to express my protest against 
Darwinism. Mr. Darwin and Mr. Warington have founded many of their 
arguments upon the effects of man’s interference with nature, as for instance 
in the case of domestic animals. The alterations, brought about by man’s 
* Vide Creation's Testimony to its God, 10th ed., p. 133. 
