168 DARWINIAXA. 



from suggesting an accidental origin to chairs and to 

 their forms, are very proofs of design. 



Again, edifice is a generic category of thought. 

 Egyptian, Grecian, Byzantine, and Gothic buildings are 

 well-marked species, of which each individual building 

 of the sort is a material embodiment. ^vTow, the ques- 

 tion is, whether these categories or ideas may not have 

 been evolved, one from another in succession, or from 

 some primal, less specialized, eclificial category. What 

 better evidence for such hypothesis could we have than 

 the variations and grades which connect these species 

 with each other ? We might extend the parallel, and 

 get some good illustrations of natural selection from 

 the history of architecture, and the origin of the dif- 

 ferent styles under different climates and conditions. 

 Two considerations may qualify or limit the compari- 

 son. One, that houses do not propagate, so as to pro- 

 duce continuing lines of each sort and variety ; but this 

 is of small moment on Agassiz's view, he holding that 

 genealogical connection is not of the essence of a 

 species at all. The other, that the formation and 

 development of the ideas upon which human works 

 proceed are gradual ; or, as the same great naturalist 

 well states it, "while human thought is consecutive, 

 Divine thought is simultaneous." But we have no 

 right to affirm this of Divine action. 



We must close here. We meant to review some 

 of the more general scientific objections which we 

 thought not altogether tenable. But, after all, we are 

 not so anxious just now to know whether the new 

 theory is well founded on facts, as whether it would 



