Page:The Geologist, volume 5.djvu/186

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THE GEOLOGIST.

He concludes in the following manner : — " The results arrived at repose on the niomentaneous state of our positive knowledge of the fossil world. New discoveries may modify them, and perhaps even change some of their details. But the general laws which we have established are based now on too large an amount of facts to permit doubt of their reality, or fear lest some exceptions of inferior importance may refute them entirely. We cannot pretend that Nature, although actually following the indicated method dur- ing creation, has never made an exceptional step, for reasons which remain to us unknown. The phenomena in question are not of a nature to be able to be assigned to fundamental laws, with the same certainty and ri- gour as physical or chemical facts, which can be calculated according to the laws of attraction and affinity, or perhaps the causes which have pro- duced them are too complicated to permit us to recognize them perfectly. If the same rigorous law was the sole cause of all these facts, the know- ledge of extinct populations which the fossil remains in the earth's strata furnishes to us would always remain defective, as we shall be never certain of knowing all the facts, which are of such importance to enable us to formulate exactly the expression of our belief. Whether the results to which we have at present arrived satisfy us or not, we have only searched for truth, and announced what we have discovered. Even when construct- ing a priori a series of theoretical laws, we have not sought to establish a preconceived opinion ; our object was to establish a method which would lead us to reply to all the questions in relation to our problem. Before accepting these theoretical laws, we were bound to make rigorous obser- vations, which we see confirmed by facts. For our motto has been for many years, and ever will be, Nature tvill teach."

If the principles actuating such noble sentiments as these were practised by all palaeontologists, England might hope for a brighter future in its scientific world than promises to dawn upon us for many years.

The Theology of G-eologists, as exemplified in the cases of the late Hugh Miller and others. With an Appejidix on the Nature and Properties of the Torhanehill Mineral, hy Hugh Miller. By William Gillespie, Author of ' The Necessary Existence of God,' etc. etc. Edinburgh : A. and C. Black.

It is wellnigh impossible to conceive the present creation devoid of man as its governing spirit. We almost inseparably associate the idea of animal life with intelligence and reason. Were they thus united in the palaeozoic ages ? If this conjunction be necessary, it must have existed from the dawn of life, — and so, we by no means prejudge the question as to man's antiquity, or the existence of a pre-Adamic race.

If the further researches of animal psychology should substantiate such a connection as we have indicated, we may expect to arrive at as strange conclusions regarding psychical life in the geologic aeons, as those which the researches of Cuvier and Owen into the animal structures of the past have revealed. In thus anticipating deeper glimpses into the economy of the past than any yet attained from the mere study of fossils, we by no means wish to resuscitate the fantastic dreamings of some cosmogonists of the sixteenth century ; but would only remind geologists that animal psycho- logy is as truly an inductive science as any observational one. Laws inse- parably linking the physical and psychical life of organized beings may yet be established ; and these will extend over past as well as present life. The psychologist, then, may yet include fossils under his cognizance. And the conclusions he may arrive at regarding the instincts and habits of the