The Present Is The Key

I Long Ago Suggested The Hypothesis, That In The Basin Of The Thames There Are Indications Of A Meeting In The Pleistocene Period Of A Northern And Southern Fauna.

Amidst The Vicissitudes Of The Earth's Surface, Species Cannot Be Immortal, But Must Perish, One After Another, Like The Individuals Which Compose Them. There Is No Possibility Of Escaping From This Conclusion.

The Question Now At Issue, Whether The Living Species Are Connected With The Extinct By A Common Bond Of Descent, Will Best Be Cleared Up By Devoting Ourselves To The Study Of The Actual State Of The Living World, And To Those Monuments Of The Past In Which The Relics Of The Animate Creation Of Former Ages Are Best Preserved And Least Mutilated By The Hand Of Time.

It Must Have Appeared Almost As Improbable To The Earlier Geologists, That The Laws Of Earthquakes Should One Day Throw Light On The Origin Of Mountains, As It Must To The First Astronomers, That The Fall Of An Apple Should Assist In Explaining The Motions Of The Moon.

I May Conclude This Chapter By Quoting A Saying Of Professor Agassiz, That Whenever A New And Startling Fact Is Brought To Light In Science, People First Say, 'it Is Not True,' Then That 'it Is Contrary To Religion,' And Lastly, 'that Everybody Knew It Before.'