conclusion is the more important, because it has
been the refuge of some speculative philosophers
to refer the origin of existing organizations, either
to an external succession of the same species,
or to the formation of more recent from more
ancient species, by successive developments,
without the interposition of direct and repeated
acts of creation ; and thus to deny the existence
of any first term, in the infinite series of successions
which this hypothesis assumes. Against
this theory, no decisive evidence has been accessible,
until the modern discoveries of geology
had established two conclusions of the highest
value in relation to this long disputed question :
the first proving, that existing species have had
a beginning ; and this at a period comparatively
recent in the physical history of our globe: the
second showing that they were preceded by
several other systems of animal and vegetable
life, respecting each of which it may
no less be proved, that there was a time when
their existence had not commenced; and that
to these more ancient systems also, the doctrine
of eternal succession, both retrospective and
prospective, is equally inapplicable.*
* Mr. Lyell, in the four first chapters of the second volume of
his Principles of Geology, has very ably and candidly examined
the arguments that have been advanced in support of the doctrine
of transmutation of species, and arrives at the conclusion,
—“ that species have a real existence in nature, and that each
Having this evidence both of the beginning
and end of several systems of organized life,
each affording internal proof of the repeated
exercise of creative design, and wisdom, and
power, we are at length conducted back to a
period anterior to the earliest of these systems;
a period in which we find a series of primary
strata, wholly destitute of organic remains ; and
from this circumstance, we infer their deposition
to have preceded the commencement of organic
life. Those who contend that life may have existed
during the formation of the primary strata,
and the animal remains have been obliterated by
the effects of heat, on strata nearest to the granite,
do but remove to one point further backwards
the first term of the finite series of organic
beings; and there still remains beyond this point
an antecedent period, in which a state of total
fusion pervaded the entire materials of the fundamental
granite; and one universal mass of incanwas
endowed, at the time of its creation, with the attributes and
organization by which it is now distinguished.”
Mr. Dela Beche also says (Geological Researches, 1834, p.
239, 1st edit. 8vo.) “ There can be no doubt that many plants can
adapt themselves to altered conditions, and many animals accommodate
themselves to different climates; but when we view
the subject generally, and allow full importance to numerous
exceptions, terrestrial plants and animals seem intended to fill
the situations they occupy, as these were fitted for them ; they
appear created as the conditions arose, the latter not causing a
modification in previously existing forms productive of new
species.”