For I can meet the statement in the last paragraph of the above
citation with nothing but a direct negative. If I know anything
at all about the results attained by the natural science of our
time, it is "a demonstrated conclusion and established fact"
that the "fourfold order" given by Mr. Gladstone is not that in
which the evidence at our disposal tends to show that the water,
air, and land-populations of the globe have made
their appearance.

Perhaps I may be told that Mr. Gladstone does give his
authority--that he cites Cuvier, Sir John Herschel, and Dr.
Whewell in support of his case. If that has been Mr. Gladstone's
intention in mentioning these eminent names, I may remark that,
on this particular question, the only relevant authority is that
of Cuvier. But great as Cuvier was, it is to be remembered that,
as Mr. Gladstone incidentally remarks, he cannot now be called a
recent authority. In fact, he has been dead more than half a
century; and the palaeontology of our day is related to that of
his, very much as the geography of the sixteenth century is
related to that of the fourteenth. Since 1832, when Cuvier died,
not only a new world, but new worlds, of ancient life have been
discovered; and those who have most faithfully carried on the
work of the chief founder of palaeontology have done most to
invalidate the essentially negative grounds of his speculative
adherence to tradition.

If Mr. Gladstone's latest information on these matters is
derived from the famous discourse prefixed to the "Ossemens
Fossiles," I can understand the position he has taken up; if he
has ever opened a respectable modern manual of palaeontology, or