DARWIN 



a new environment; it came suddenly so far as our 

 palaeontological records show; it is assumed to have 

 developed from the dermal plates or scales of reptiles. 

 Can anyone imagine any advantage to the reptile dur- 

 ing the stages of development between its covering of 

 plates or scales, and that of feathers covering, and ar- 

 ranged on, a bird already adapted for flight'? No 

 biologist has found such an advantage, and the theory 

 of natural selection requires that variations, useful at 

 every stage, can alone be preserved. Until we can find 

 such useful qualities during the development of the 

 feather and thousands of other characteristics of 

 plants and animals, why should we accept the doc- 

 trine of natural selection or any other hypothesis ex- 

 cept the mere belief that organisms have evolved? 

 This is the reason why the doctrine of mutations, or 

 sudden jumps, so unpalatable to evolutionists, is be- 

 ing substituted for natural selection with its slow 

 progression. When we once allow nature to jump, we 

 can no longer ridicule the ingenuous mind which can 

 picture a prehistoric scaly reptile as having been 

 dumfounded when it found that it had suddenly giv- 

 en birth to a feathered bird. The doctrine of muta- 

 tions does avoid all the difficulties which puzzle us 

 when we attempt to construct a theory of evolution ; 

 when we find any variation which cannot be ex- 

 plained, by the theory of mutations we can safely say 

 it was one of the jumps of nature. 



The evolutionists gave much importance to the 



C 229 3 



