Here all
that Mr. Darwin can do is to insist upon the extreme imperfection of
the geological record and the uncertainty of negative evidence. But,
withal, he allows the force of the objection almost as much as his
opponents urge it,--so much so, indeed, that two of his English
critics turn the concession unfairly upon him, and charge him with
actually basing his hypothesis upon these and similar
difficulties,--as if he held it because of the difficulties, and not
in spite of them;--a handsome return for his candor!
As to this imperfection of the geological record, perhaps we should
get a fair and intelligible illustration of it by imagining the
existing animals and plants of New England, with all their remains and
products since the arrival of the Mayflower, to be annihilated; and
that, in the coming time, the geologists of a new colony, dropped by
the New Zealand fleet on its way to explore the ruins of London,
undertake, after fifty years of examination, to reconstruct in a
catalogue the flora and fauna of our day, that is, from the close of
the glacial period to the present time. With all the advantages of a
surface exploration, what a beggarly account it must be! How many of
the land animals and plants which are enumerated in the Massachusetts
official reports would it be likely to contain?
Another unanswerable question asked by the Boston reviewers is, Why,
when structure and instinct or habit vary,--as they must have varied,
on Darwin's hypothesis,--they vary together and harmoniously, instead
of vaguely.
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