WHAT IS A SPECIES 5 43 



descendants of one and the same original primary form. 

 The different kinds of pine mentioned above would accord- 

 ingly have originated from a single primaeval form of pine. 

 In like manner the origin of aU the species of cat 

 mentioned above would be traced to a single common form 

 of Felis, the ancestor of the whole genus. But further, 

 in accordance with the Doctrine of Descent, all the 

 different genera of one and the same order ought also to 

 be descended from one common primary ancestor, and so, in 

 like manner, all ordres of a class from a single primary form. 



On the other hand, according to the idea of Darwin's 

 opponents, all species of animals and plants are quite in- 

 dependent of each other, and only the individuals of each 

 species have originated from a single primary form. But if 

 we ask them how they conceive these original primary forms 

 of each species to have come into existence, they answer 

 with a leap into the incomprehensible, " They were created." 



Linnaeus himself defined the idea of species in this 

 manner by saying, " There are as many different species as 

 there were different forms created in the beginning by the 

 infinite Being." ( " Species tot sunt diversse, quot diversas 

 formas ab initio creavit infinitum ens.") In this respect, 

 therefore, he follows most closely the Mosaic history of 

 creation, which in the same way maintains that animals 

 and plants were created "each one after its kind." Linnseus, 

 accepting this, held that originally of each species of 

 animals and plants either a single individual or a pair had 

 been created ; in fact a pair, or, as Moses says, "a male 

 and a female " of those species which have separate sexes, 

 but of those species in which each individual combines both 

 sexual organs (hermaphrodites), as for instance the earth- 



