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if development theories had never been dis-Cussed.’
In conclusion, he sketches the plan of these articles.
‘I hope in future articles to show, first, that, however broken the geological record may be, there is a complete sequence in many parts of it, from which the character of the succession may be ascertained; secondly, that, since the most exquisitely delicate structures, as well as embryonic phases of growth of the most perishable nature, have been preserved from very early deposits, we have no right to infer the disappearance of types because their absence disproves some favorite theory; and, lastly, that there is no evidence of a direct descent of later from earlier species in the geological succession of animals’
This paper contained the sentence so often quoted since, ‘A physical fact is as sacred as a moral principle.
Our own nature demands from us this double allegiance.’
This expressed the secret of his whole life.
Every fact in nature was sacred to him, as part of an intellectual conception expressed in the history of the earth and the beings living upon it.
On the 2d of December, he was called to a meeting of the Massachusetts Board of
Houghton, Mifflin and company, New York, Boston, 1885.
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