THE AECIIEAX. 145 
The first question proposed to the Congress seems to be an 
unusual one, but in the light of investigations made in our own 
country, recently, and the number of eminent geologists who have 
adopted the conclusion to which these researches seem to have led, 
it is perhaps the most important of all. It is, " Shall the Pre- 
Cambrian be included with the Paleozoic?" Prof. Dewalque in 
making the proposition adds, " The negative does not seem doubt- 
ful," but when Dr. Blanford desired to postpone the question of 
forming a group of Pre-Cambrian, the former replied that if the 
group be not accepted, then the Pre-Cambrian strata must belong to 
the Paleozoic, and Prof, de Lapparent added, if the Pre-Cambrian 
contain fossils it must be joined to the Paleozoic. This fragment 
of a discussion states the question as plainly as an elaborate trea- 
tise could do it. As Prof, de Lapparent's objection is the most 
radical, let it be considered in the first instance. 
One of the great dangers in classification is the establishment 
of artificial lines, which become in time real barriers to that free 
ebb and flow of conception which has always })receded the estab- 
lishment of a permanent theory. 
It would seem in this case as if the necessity of joining the fos- 
siliferous portion of the Pre-Cambrian to the system above it was 
created by the use of the word " Paleozoic," and by our insensible 
effort to attain symmetry. " Old life," " Middle life," and " New 
life" make plausible divisions by organic forms of the rocks 
containing fossils; and the earliest rocks known to us, if crys- 
talline and apparently lacking in fossils, appeal to the imagi- 
nation to be accepted as the remains of a first crystallized crust; 
but with our present knowledge it is generally agreed that we are 
not justified in considering them so. The subject is of more 
apparent than real utility in research, and mainly concerns the 
question whether we have anywhere represented the primitive 
crust of the earth ; for even if it be conceded that the oldest 
known rocks contained the remains of life at the time they were 
produced, it will not be denied that a separate division of the 
same value as "Paleozoic" and "Mesozoic" must be employed 
for them now. It would seem, therefore, to be an artificial 
necessity founded upon the tyranny of an etymology, to class 
the Pre-Cambrian with what we call the Paleozoic M'hcther the 
former contain fossils or not, provided they differ from Paleo- 
zoic rocks in other important particulars. 
