multitude of reputed species in each genus are not real species; but
that other species are real, that is, have been independently created.
This seems to me a strange conclusion to arrive at. They admit that a
multitude of forms, which till lately they themselves thought were
special creations, and which are still thus looked at by the majority
of naturalists, and which consequently have every external
characteristic feature of true species, they admit that these have been
produced by variation, but they refuse to extend the same view to other
and very slightly different forms. Nevertheless they do not pretend
that they can define, or even conjecture, which are the created forms
of life, and which are those produced by secondary laws. They admit
variation as a _vera causa_ in one case, they arbitrarily reject it in
another, without assigning any distinction in the two cases. The day
will come when this will be given as a curious illustration of
the blindness of preconceived opinion. These authors seem no more
startled at a miraculous act of creation than at an ordinary birth. But
do they really believe that at innumerable periods in the earth s
history certain elemental atoms have been commanded suddenly to flash
into living tissues? Do they believe that at each supposed act of
creation one individual or many were produced? Were all the infinitely
numerous kinds of animals and plants created as eggs or seed, or as
full grown? and in the case of mammals, were they created bearing the
false marks of nourishment from the mother s womb? Although naturalists
very properly demand a full explanation of every difficulty from those
who believe in the mutability of species, on their own side they ignore
the whole subject of the first appearance of species in what they
consider reverent silence.
It may be asked how far I extend the doctrine of the modification of
species. The question is difficult to answer, because the more distinct
the forms are which we may consider, by so much the arguments fall away
in force. But some arguments of the greatest weight extend very far.
All the members of whole classes can be connected together by chains of
affinities, and all can be classified on the same principle, in groups
subordinate to groups. Fossil remains sometimes tend to fill up very
wide intervals between existing orders. Organs in a rudimentary
condition plainly show that an early progenitor had the organ in a
fully developed state; and this in some instances necessarily implies
an enormous amount of modification in the descendants. Throughout whole
classes various structures are formed on the same pattern, and at an
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