CLEWS IN NATURAL HISTORY. 29 



" special creation " of the horses does not look well, it must be con- 

 fessed, in the face of the gradual and obvious modification exhibited 

 by the series of fossil horses, which leads without a break from Eohippus 

 to the modern horse. At most, it may be said, there is but a choice of 

 probabilities offered us. And in the adoption of a scheme of develop- 

 ment, and in face of the facts laid before us, it is hard to see any 

 grounds whereon the special-creation theory can be maintained, or the 

 theory of progressive development and evolution denied. For if evo- 

 lution is the law of the horse's history, it must logically follow that it 

 represents the scheme of nature throughout : since the uniformity of 

 nature, in which we are bound to believe, and to which we are bound 

 to appeal, would utterly negative the idea that evolution should hold 

 good for the horse, and be inapplicable to any other living thing. Be- 

 cause the missing links are not so completely supplied to us in other 

 cases as in the horse, we are not on that account entitled to assume that 

 the theory of development is invalid. We may not see an oak-tree 

 grow inch by inch, but we are as positive as our mental nature will 

 admit, that the oak was once an acorn, and that there has been a pro- 

 gressive growth and increase which might not be apparent to us were 

 we to watch the tree for weeks together. Applying this reasoning to 

 the case before us, it would be as illogical to deny that the order of 

 nature was that of development, as to insist that the oak was created as 

 it stands. The extent of human knowledge, and the duration of human 

 existence, are together inadequate to enable us to discern the progress 

 of this world's order after the fashion whereby, from a lofty elevation, 

 we may trace every winding of a stream. But the probabilities of the 

 case are as overwhelmingly for progressive development, as the direct 

 evidence at hand exemplified by the horse's pedigree tells against 

 special and independent creation having been the way of the First 

 Cause in the making of the world and its living things. 



The entire scheme of scientific discover}' thus depends very largely 

 upon the use made of the hints which nature is continually presenting 

 to the searcher, and on the correct interpretation of the facts he is for- 

 tunate enough to elicit in his search. The study of the rudiments of 

 animal and plant structures may well exemplify, from the importance 

 of its results, the value of gathering up the veriest fragments of knowl- 

 edge. For, as Mr. A. R. Wallace has remarked regarding rudimentary 

 organs, " There must be a cause for them ; they must be the necessary 

 results of some great law." And again are this author's words most 

 appropriate when he says : " Many more of these modifications should 

 we behold, and more complete series of them, had we a view of all the 

 forms which have ceased to live. The great gaps that exist between 

 fishes, reptiles, birds, and mammals (that between reptiles and birds is 

 now wellnigh obliterated) would then, no doubt, be softened down by 

 intermediate groups, and the whole organic world would be seen to be 

 an unbroken and harmonious system." Gentletna7i i s Magazine. 



