miracles," "interferences," and other suggestions and figures of speech in vogue amongst geologists. It seemed to him logically necessary that we should regard the organic part of nature as having been instituted in the manner of law also, though not less under the providential care of the Supreme than the physical phenomena of the beginning, or any part of the great pageant of nature which daily passes before our eyes, and in which we ourselves have a place.

He had heard of the hypothesis of Lamarck; but it seemed to him to proceed upon a vicious circle, and he dismissed it as wholly inadequate to account for the existence of the animated species. He was not acquainted with the works of St. Hilaire, but through such treatises on physiology as had fallen in his way, he was aware of some of the transcendental views of that science entertained both in France and England. With the aid of these, in conjunction with some knowledge of the succession of fossils in the series of rock-formations, he applied himself to the task of elucidating the Great Mystery, as it was frequently termed by men of science. He did not do so-as far as he knows himself, —in an irreverent spirit, or with a hostile design to any form of faith or code of morals. He viewed the inquiry as simply philosophical, and felt assured that our conception of the divine Author of Nature could never be truly

injured by any additional insight we might gain into His works and ways. At the same time, having no name or place in the world to give a recommendation to his ideas, and greatly disrelishing the turbid waters of controversy, he resolved, if possible, to speculate on this question as Vox et præterea nihil.

The difficulties of the way were great, and the guiding posts and lights very uncertain. The first fact to be accounted for, the passage from the inorganic to the organic, did not, however, so much embarrass himillustrated as it was by organic chemistry-as the means by which all animals above the very humblest were created. The first of any given mammalian species,-how was so complicated a being to be formed out of inorganic elements in a manner describable as natural-how even, without ordinary maternity, were the first examples of any such species to be nursed into maturity? After long cogitation, the idea at length came unpromptedly into his mind -and therefore so far was an original idea-that the ordinary phenomenon of reproduction was the key to the genesis of species. In that process-simple because familiar to us, but in reality mysterious, because we only can look darkly and adoringly through results to the inscrutable Agent we see a gradual evolution of high from low, of complicated from simple, of special from general, all in unvarying order, and therefore all

It

natural, although all of divine ordination. Might there not have been, in those secula seculorum with which the geologist deals, a similar or analogous evolution of being, throwing off, as it were, the various species as it proceeded, until it rested (if it does rest) with humanity itself? The idea was of startling novelty and vastness; yet, when the mind was trained to view it steadily and coolly, it seemed to have much to recommend it. It suggested a process of a slow and gradual character, and so far was in harmony with the hypothesis of the physical arrangements of the universe. demanded no new power or means in nature, for the changes of an embryo fell little short of the required advances from species to species. The doctrine of unity of organization; the affinities seen in lines of species; the curious fact of rudimentary organs; above all, the actual history of the course of animated nature, as revealed by the researches of the paleontologist; were all in harmony with the idea, and could be reconciled to no other of a greatly different character. The author therefore embraced the doctrine of Progressive Development as a hypothetic history of organic creation.

The work in which he embodied his views was published in 1844, with such slender hopes of success on his part, that, to ensure some attention in appropriate circles, he directed a considerable part of the impression

to be given away. As is well known, the fate of the book was not to rest in obscurity or oblivion, but to be extensively read, and become the subject of much animadversion. It has never had a single declared adherent and nine editions have been sold. Obloquy has been poured upon the nameless author from a score of sources and his leading idea, in a subdued form, finds its way into books of science, and gives a direction to research. Professing adversaries write books in imitation of his, and, with the benefit of a few concessions to prejudice, contrive to obtain the favour denied to him. It is needless to say that the storm of opposition has never for a moment affected his original faith in the hypothesis-as how, indeed, could it, when not one of the writers on that side proved himself to have taken up a correct conception of the aim of the work, showed a power of reasoning upon it logically, or seemed capable of taking a candid view of the data on which it rests? But he has been, nevertheless, open to correction on many points which the progress of science has rendered clearer to his own mind, and accordingly the work has undergone much change. In the present illustrated edition he has had the benefit of a rigorous, and, he may add, by no means complaisant revision, from a physiologist at once distinguished as an original inquirer, and as an expositor of the science. While not adopting

every suggestion of this only friend-for even he showed himself as partaking somewhat of that eagerness to embrace immature facts against the development hypothesis, of which so many unfortunate examples are here submitted to public consideration - he feels deeply grateful for many others, by which he believes the work to have undergone a great, though chiefly negative benefit. An important positive feature has at the same time been added, in the form of an Appendix of proofs, illustrations, authorities, and answers to objections; to which he would respectfully call the attention of those who have been led to believe that the work is not supported by the facts of science.