ADVERTISEMENT.

* * * * *

The following tractate first appeared in the form of a literary review
in a supplement of the ATLAS; but two impressions of that journal having
been long since exhausted, and inquiries still continuing numerous and
urgent, the proprietor has granted permission for the article to be
reprinted in a separate, more convenient, and perhaps enduring vehicle
than that of a newspaper.

Few works of a scientific import have been published that so promptly
and deeply fixed public attention as the _Vestiges of Creation_, or
elicited more numerous replies and sharper critical analysis and
disquisition. Upon so vast a question as the evolution of universal
creation differences of opinion were natural and unavoidable. Many have
disputed the accuracy of some of the author's facts, and the sequence
and validity of his inductive inferences; but few can withhold from him
the praise of a patient and intrepid spirit of inquiry, much occasional
eloquence, and very considerable powers of analysis, systematic
induction, arrangement and combination.

In what follows the leading objects kept in view have been--first, an
expository outline of the author's facts and argument; next, of the
chief reasons by which they have been impugned by Professor SEDGWICK,
Professor WHEWELL, Mr. BOSANQUET, and others who have entered the lists