Page:Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man.djvu/520

500 a deposit of corresponding age at Eppelsheim near Darmstadt, in a latitude answering to that of the southern counties of England. But according to the doctrine of progression it is not in these miocene strata, but in those of pliocene and post-pliocene date, in more equatorial regions, that there will be the greatest chance of discovering hereafter some species more highly organised than the gorilla and chimpanzee. The only reputed fossil monkey of eocene date, namely, that found in 1840 at Kyson, in Suffolk, and so determined by Professor Owen, has recently been pronounced by the same anatomist, after reexamination, and when he had ampler materials at his command, to be a pachyderm.

M. Rütimeyer, however, an able osteologist, referred to in the earlier chapters of this work, has just announced the discovery in eocene strata, in the Swiss Jura, of a monkey allied to the lemurs, but as he has only obtained as yet a small fragment of a jaw with three molar teeth, we must wait for fuller information before we confidently rely on the claims of his Cœnopithecus lemuroides to take rank as one of the Primates.

Hallam, in his 'Literature of Europe,' after indulging in some profound reflections on 'the thoughts of Pascal,' and the theological dogmas of his school respecting the fallen nature of Man, thus speaks of Man's place in the creation:—'It might be wandering from the proper subject of these volumes if we were to pause, even shortly, to inquire whether, while the creation of a world so full of evil must ever remain the most inscrutable of mysteries, we might not be