PERPETUATION OF LIVING BEINGS. 109 



the primitive stock ? And commonly as the thing is 

 assumed and accepted, it is extremely difficult to get 

 anything like good evidence of it. It is constantly said, 

 for example, that if domesticated Horses are turned 

 wild, as they have been in some parts of Asia Minor 

 and South America, that they return at once to the 

 primitive stock from which they were bred. But the 

 first answer that you make to this assumption is, to 

 ask who knows what the primitive stock was ; and the 

 second answer is, that in that case the wild Horses of 

 Asia Minor ought to be exactly like the wild Horses 

 of South America. If they are both like the same 

 thing, they ought manifestly to be like each other ! 

 The best authorities, however, tell you that it is quite 

 different. The wild Horse of Asia is said to be of a 

 dun colour, with a largish head, and a great many 

 other peculiarities ; while the best authorities on the 

 wild Horses of South America tell you that there is 

 nothing of this sort in the wild Horses there ; the cut 

 of their heads is very different, and they are commonly 

 chestnut or bay-coloured. It is quite clear, therefore, 

 that as by these facts there ought to have been two 

 primitive stocks, they go for nothing in support of the 

 assumption that races recur to one primitive stock, and 

 so far as this evidence is concerned, it falls to the 

 ground. 



Suppose for a moment that it were so, and that 

 domesticated races, when turned wild, did return to 

 some common condition, I cannot see that this would 

 prove much more than that similar conditions are likely 

 to produce similar results; and that when you take 

 back domesticated animals into what we call natural 

 conditions, you do exactly the same thing as if you 



