The race is
not extinct, but, as of old, brings forth its "winds of
doctrine" by which the weathercock heads among us are much
exercised.
[6] Some critics do not even take the trouble to read. I have
recently been adjured with much solemnity, to state publicly why
I have "changed my opinion" as to the value of the
palaeontological evidence of the occurrence of evolution.
To this my reply is, Why should I, when that statement was made
seven years ago? An address delivered from the Presidential
Chair of the Geological Society, in 1870, may be said to be a
public document, inasmuch as it not only appeared in the
_Journal_ of that learned body, but was re-published, in 1873,
in a volume of "Critiques and Addresses," to which my name is
attached. Therein will be found a pretty full statement of my
reasons for enunciating two propositions: (1) that "when we turn
to the higher _Vertebrata_, the results of recent
investigations, however we may sift and criticise them, seem to
me to leave a clear balance in favour of the evolution of living
forms one from another;" and (2) that the case of the horse is
one which "will stand rigorous criticism.
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