ABSTRACT
Sedgwick believed that God made the conditions, and then put in plants and animals to fit. Why then asked Robert, did He wait endless ages, surveying seas bare of fishes, and land of creatures? It made no sense, except in terms of his theory of transmutation, when long empty periods were exactly what was required to allow changes to take place. As for Sedgwick’s objection that there was no evidence of the transition from one species to another, did the professor know how to detect such evidence? Rudimentary organs were an important one, and ‘the simple fact of reptiles following fish in this grand march of life through the morning of time’ could not be avoided. Robert was prepared for the hostility of the church but when the reviews started appearing criticising not his morality but his science, he knew something must be done.
