Origin of Species Variorum

&c., have unanimously, often vehemently, maintained the immutability of species. But ... Sir Charles Lyell now gives the support of his high authority to the opposite side; and most other geologists and palæontologists are much shaken in their former belief. ↑ Those who believe that the geological record is in any degree perfect, ... will undoubtedly at once reject the theory. For my part, following out Lyells metaphor, I look at the .. geological record, as a history of the world imperfectly kept, and written in a changing dialect; of this history we possess the last volume alone, relating only to two or three countries. Of this volume, only here and there a short chapter has been preserved; and of each page, only here and there a few lines. Each word of the slowly-changing language, ... more or less different in the .. successive .. chapters, may represent the ... forms of life, which are entombed in our consecutive formations, and which falsely appear to us to have been abruptly introduced. On this view, the difficulties above discussed are greatly diminished, or even disappear.