SPECIES. 253 



deniable fact that these relations are not so exclusive as 

 those naturalists would represent them who urge them as 

 an unfailing criterion of specific identity. I would re- 

 mind those who constantly forget it, that there are animals, 

 which, though specifically distinct, do unite sexually, 

 which do produce offspring, mostly sterile, it is true, in 

 some species, but fertile to a limited extent in others, and 

 in others even fertile to an extent which it has not yet 

 been possible to determine. Sexual connection is the re- 

 sult, or rather one of the most striking expressions, of the 

 close relationship established in the beginning between 

 individuals of the same species, and is by no means the 

 cause of their identity in successive generations. When 

 first created, animals of the same species paired because 

 they were made one for the other; they did not take one 

 another in order to build up their species, which had full 

 existence before the first individual produced by sexual 

 connection was born. 



This view of the subject acquires greater importance in 

 proportion as it becomes more apparent that species did 

 not originate in single pairs, but were created in large 

 numbers in those numeric proportions which constitute 

 the natural harmonies between organized beings. It alone 

 explains the possibility of the procreation of Hybrids, as 

 founded upon the natural relationship of individuals of 

 closely allied species, which may become fertile with one 

 another the more readily as they differ less structurally. 



To assume that sexual relations determine the species, 

 it should further be shown that absolute promiscuousness 

 of sexes among individuals of the same species is the pre- 

 vailing characteristic of the animal kingdom; while the 

 fact is, that a large number even of animals, not to speak 

 of Man, select their mates for life, and rarely have any 



