"VESTIGES OF THE NATURAL HISTORY OF CREATION."

(_From the_ ATLAS _of December 20, 1845._)


So many strong objections had been arrayed against the _Vestiges of
Creation_, that the author was called upon to elucidate and reinforce
his argument, or abandon the ground he had taken up. The more candid and
equitable of his judges--those who were disposed to try him upon the
merits, and independently test the claims of his inquiry, as in fairness
it ought to be, as strictly a scientific speculation, regardless of any
constructive bearings it might have on current opinions or
prejudices--could not arrive at any more favourable conclusion than that
he had failed to establish his hypotheses. Indeed this was the only
verdict that could be safely delivered in. The impugners of the work
were in the same helpless predicament as its author, who had, however,
more venturously presumed to unravel unsearchable mysteries, concerning
which, in the existing state of science, men can only conjecture,
wonder, and adore, utterly unable to affirm or deny aught respecting
them. What, for instance, with the remotest semblance of certainty, can
be predicated of the stellar orbs? Is it not idle almost to speculate on
the impenetrable secret of their origin when their very existence is
undefinable--when their end, their glittering discs, and all but
immeasurable distances are wholly unapproachable? Nor hardly less beyond
our grasp is the commencement of organic existences. We do pride
ourselves on recent advances to the sources of entity; we tear up the
dead, we torture the living, and sedulously chronicle every beat of the
heart and vibration of the brain to slake an insatiable curiosity, yet
how unsatisfactory our reach towards the hidden springs of life--how