X HISTORICAL SKETCH. 



de l'Acad. Roy. Bruxelles," torn. xiii. p. 581) his opinion 

 that it is more probable that new species have been pro- 

 duced by descent with modification than that they have been 

 separately created : the author first promulgated this opinion 

 in 1831. 



Professor Owen, in 1849 (" Nature of Limbs," p. 8G), 

 wrote as follows : " The archetj^pal idea was manifested in 

 the flesh under diverse such modifications, upon this planet, 

 long prior to the existence of those animal species that 

 actually exemplify it. To what natural laws or secondary 

 causes the orderly succession and progression of such organic 

 phenomena may have been committed, we, as yet, are igno- 

 rant." In his address to the British Association, in 1858, 

 he speaks (p. li.) of " the axiom of the continuous operation 

 of creative power, or of the ordained becoming of living 

 things." Further on (p. xc), after referring to geographical 

 distribution, he adds, "These phenomena shake our confi- 

 dence in the conclusion that the Apteryx of New Zealand 

 and the Red Grouse of England were distinct creations in 

 and for those islands respectively. Always, also, it may be 

 well to bear in mind that by the word ' creation ' the zoolo- 

 gist means ' a process he knows not what/ " He amplifies 

 this idea by adding that when such cases as that of the Red 

 Grouse are "enumerated by the zoologist as evidence of dis- 

 tinct creation of the bird in and for such islands, he chiefly 

 expresses that he knows not how the Red Grouse came to be 

 there, and there exclusively ; signifying also, by this mode 

 of expressing such ignorance, his belief that both the bird 

 and the islands owed their origin to a great first Creative 

 Cause." If we interpret these sentences given in the same 

 address, one by the other, it appears that this eminent 

 philosopher felt in 1858 his confidence shaken that the 

 Apteryx and the Red Grouse first appeared in their respec- 

 tive homes " he knew not how," or by some process " he 

 knew not what." 



This address was delivered after the papers by Mr. Wallace 

 and myself on the Origin of Species, presently to be referred 

 to, had been read before the Linnean Society. When the 

 first edition of this work was published, I was so completely 

 deceived, as were many others, by such expressions as " the 

 continuous operation of creative power," that I included 

 Professor Owen with other palaeontologists as being firmly 

 convinced of the immutability of species ; but it appears 

 (" Anat. of Vertebrates," vol. iii. p. 796) that this was on 



