| ↑ 1 blocks not present in 1861 1866 1869 1872; present in 1859 1860 |
| We meet with no such evidence, and this is the most obvious and forcible of the many objections which may be urged against my theory.
|
|
| → certainly they 1859 1860 1861 1866 |
| this appearance is 1869 1872 |
|
| → Although we now know that organic beings appeared on this globe, at a period incalculably remote, long before the lowest bed 1866 1869 1872 |
| Why do we not find great piles of strata beneath the Silurian system, stored with the remains 1859 1860 1861 |
|
| → Silurian system was deposited, why do we not find beneath this system great piles of strata stored with the remains 1866 |
| progenitors 1859 1860 1861 |
| Cambrian system was deposited, why do we not find beneath this system great piles of strata stored with the remains 1869 1872 |
|
| → progenitors of the Silurian 1866 |
| Silurian groups of 1859 1860 1861 |
| progenitors of the Cambrian 1869 1872 |
|
| → parent-form 1866 1869 1872 |
| parent form of 1861 |
|
|
Why does not every collection of fossil remains afford plain evidence of the
and mutation of the forms of life? Although geological research has undoubtedly revealed the former existence of many links, bringing numerous forms of life much closer together, it does not yield the infinitely many fine
between past and present species required on
theory; and this is the most obvious
of the many objections which may be urged against it. ↑
Why, again, do whole groups of allied species appear, though
→certainly they
often
to have come in suddenly on the
geological stages?
→Although we now know that organic beings appeared on this globe, at a period incalculably remote, long before the lowest bed
of the
→Silurian system was deposited, why do we not find beneath this system great piles of strata stored with the remains
of the
→progenitors of the Silurian
fossils? For
on
such strata must somewhere have been deposited at these ancient and utterly unknown epochs
the
history. |
|
| I can answer these
and
objections only on the supposition that the geological record is far more imperfect than most geologists believe. It cannot be objected that there has not been time sufficient for any amount of organic change; for the lapse of time has been so great as to be utterly inappreciable by the human intellect. The number of specimens in all our museums is absolutely as nothing compared with the countless generations of countless species which
existed. The
→parent-form
two or more species would not be in all its characters directly intermediate between its modified offspring, any more than the rock-pigeon is directly intermediate in crop and tail between its
the pouter and fantail pigeons. We should not be able to recognise a species as the parent
|
