On page 12 Herschel writes of the revelations of Geology pointing to successive submersions and reconstructions of the continents and fresh races of animals and plants.
He refers to a "great law of change" which has not operated either by a gradually progressing variation of species, nor by a sudden and total abolition of one race...The following footnote on page 12 of the "Physical Geography" was added in January, 1861: "This was written previous to the publication of Mr.Darwin's work on the "Origin of Species," a work which, whatever its merit or ingenuity, we cannot, however, consider as having disproved the view taken in the text.

We can no more accept the principle of arbitrary and casual variation and natural selection as a sufficient account, per se, of the past and present organic world, than we can receive the Laputan method of composing books (pushed a outrance) as a sufficient one of Shakespeare and the "Principia." Equally in either case an intelligence, guided by a purpose, must be continually in action to bias the directions of the steps of change--to regulate their amount, to limit their divergence, and to continue them in a definite course.

We do not believe that Mr.
Darwin means to deny the necessity of such intelligent direction.

But it does not, so far as we can see, enter into the formula of this law, and without it we are unable to conceive how far the law can have led to the results.

On the other hand, we do not mean to deny that such intelligence may act according to a law (that is to say, on a preconceived and definite plan).