1845 
WHEWELL ON ‘VESTIGES 
253 
way, so many, in different natural series, being on 
a par ; much less can they be so arranged as that 
the more perfect in their foetal condition pass 
through the successive stages of the less perfect, 
the characters being taken from the brain to the 
heart’ He gives no definite reply to Whewell’s 
last question. 
Whewell wrote to Owen again on February 
13, thanking him for his letter, and stating that his 
reason for asking his opinion was, that ‘ though 
the author is very decorous in his language [the 
book] has been felt by many persons to have a 
tendency adverse to Natural Theology; and I 
have been importuned to answer it. This I 
cannot undertake to do.’ He intends, he says, to 
issue some selections from his ‘ Philosophy’ bearing 
on Theology, ‘ and in the preface (without naming 
the “ Vestiges ” ) I shall notice one or two points 
which have some apparent novelty in the book.’ 
He wishes to quote Owen’s authority for various 
statements ; but from a later letter of Whewell’s 
(February 15) we gather that Owen had objected 
to this, for Whewell says : ‘ So far as you are con- 
cerned, I will submit anything which I write, and 
you shall see and decide for yourself, as is rea- 
sonable.’ 
Murchison and Sedgwick wrote on the same 
subject. 
