heavals? The probability of this conclusion being admitted, it must be
admitted that the facts of Paleontology can never suffice either to
prove or disprove the Development Hypothesis; but that the most they can
do is to show whether the last few pages of the Earth's biologic
history, are or are not in harmony with this hypothesis--whether the
existing Flora and Fauna can or can not be affiliated upon the Flora and
Fauna of the most recent geologic times.

FOOTNOTE:

[Footnote 27: Sir Charles Lyell is no longer to be classed among
Uniformitarians. With rare and admirable candour he has, since this was
written, yielded to the arguments of Mr. Darwin.]

BAIN ON THE EMOTIONS AND THE WILL.

[_First published in_ The Medico-Chirurgical Review _for January,_
1860.]

After the controversy between the Neptunists and the Vulcanists had been
long carried on without definite results, there came a reaction against
all speculative geology. Reasoning without adequate data having led to
nothing, inquirers went into the opposite extreme, and confining
themselves wholly to collecting data, relinquished reasoning. The
Geological Society of London was formed with the express object of
accumulating evidence; for many years hypotheses were forbidden at its
meetings: and only of late have attempts to organize the mass of
observations into consistent theory been tolerated.

This reaction and subsequent re-reaction, well illustrate the recent
history of English thought in general. The time was when our countrymen
speculated, certainly to as great an extent as any other people, on all
those high questions which present themselves to the human intellect;
and, indeed, a glance at the systems of philosophy that are or have been
current on the Continent, suffices to show how much other nations owe to
the discoveries of our ancestors. For a generation or two, however,
these more abstract subjects have fallen into neglect; and, among those
who plume themselves on being "practical," even into contempt. Partly,
perhaps, a natural accompaniment of our rapid material growth, this
intellectual phase has been in great measure due to the exhaustion of
argument, and the necessity for better data. Not so much with a
conscious recognition of the end to be subserved, as from an unconscious
subordination to that rhythm traceable in social changes as in other
things, an era of theorizing without observing, has been followed by an
era of obs