I confess that I feel disposed to treat very tenderly the position of objectors. The facts I have stated make large demands on the faith of the greater part even of naturalists. Very few geologists or naturalists have much knowledge of the structure of foraminiferal shells, or would be able under the microscope to recognise them with certainty. Nor have they any distinct ideas of the appearances of such structures under different kinds of preservation and mineralization. Further, they have long been accustomed to regard the so-called Azoic or Archæan rocks as not only destitute of organic remains, but as being in such a state of metamorphism that these could not have been preserved had they existed. Few, therefore, are able intelligently to decide for themselves, and so they are called on to trust to the investigations of others, and on their testimony to modify in a marked degree their previous beliefs as to the duration of life on our planet. In these circumstances it is rather wonderful that the researches made with reference to Eozoon have met with so general acceptance, and that the resurrection of this ancient inhabitant of the earth has not aroused more of the sceptical tendency of our age. It must not be lost sight of, however, that in such cases there may exist a large amount of undeveloped and even unconscious scepticism, which shows itself not in active opposition, but merely in quietly ignoring this great discovery, or regarding it with doubt, as an uncertain or unestablished point in science. Such scepticism is especially to be expected on the part of the many enthusiastic students of petrography who are accustomed to regard rocks merely as mineral aggregates, and even to have their slices prepared in a manner which scarcely permits organic remains of present to be distinguished. Such students should consider that the discovery of Eozoon brings the rocks of the Laurentian system into more full harmony with the other geological formations. It explains the origin of the Laurentian limestones in consistency with that of similar rocks in the later periods, and in like manner it helps us to account for the graphite and sulphides and iron ores of these old rocks. It shows us that no time was lost in the introduction of life on the earth. Otherwise there would have been a vast lapse of time in which, while the conditions suitable to life were probably present, no living thing existed to take advantage of these conditions. Further, it gives a more simple beginning of life than that afforded by the more complex fauna of the Cambrian age; and this is more in accordance with what we know of the slow and gradual introduction of new forms of living things during the vast periods of Palæozoic time. In connection with this, it opens a new and promising field of observation in the older rocks; and if this should prove fertile, its exploration may afford a vast harvest of new forms to the geologists of the present and coming time. This result