224 [September 



this subject" (p. 141, &c.), and Mr. Darwin was the first and only natu- 

 ralist that made the phenomena of variability under domestication 

 the leading feature in the question, and as moreover it is well under- 

 stood among the disciples of Prof. Agassiz, that his blows are aimed at 

 the '• Origin of Species," it is impossible not to draw the inference that it 

 is to that book that he more especially refers. The mere fact of his quot- 

 ing in his Preface, totidem verbis, in connection with the theory which 

 he proposes to refute, a remarkable phrase first used by Darwin in the 

 " Origin of Species" — ■" the Imperfection of the Geological Record" 

 — would, alone, be not only moral, but almost legal proof, that it is 

 against the " Origin of Species" that his arguments are chiefly di- 

 rected. In one word, if he does not refer to that book, to what book 

 can he refer ? 



In order to substantiate the grave charge made just now against 

 Prof. Agassiz, viz. that he has fundamentally misstated the views of 

 his opponent, it will be necessary to state briefly what the Darwinian 

 Theory really is. Its leading principles may be thus condensed : — 



Isf. Most species, both of animals and plants, vary more or less, 

 whether they are in a state of domestication or in a state of natui'e. 



2nd. In the case of domesticated species, man often seizes hold of 

 any given variation that is useful or pleasing, not to the animal or 

 plant, but to himself; and by selecting those individuals that possess 

 that given variation in ever so small a degree, and breeding exclusively 

 from them, gradually, on the well-known principle that '• like produces 

 like," or what naturalists call the Law of Inheritance, exaggerates the 

 variation till it assumes very large proportions. Thus from the wild 

 rock-pigeon have been gradually produced the difl"erent breeds of fancy 

 pigeons^tumblers, carriers, fantails, &c. — some of which, as Darwin 

 truly observes, difi'er so widely from the others, that if discovered in a 

 wild state they would be considered by ornithologists as not only spe- 

 cifically but generically distinct. — This process may be called A.rtificial 

 Selection. 



3rd. In the case of wild species, Nature seizes hold of any given 

 variation that is useful, not to man, but to the animal or plant itself. 

 And as from the natural rate of increase in every known species, very 

 many moi"e individuals come into the jvorld than can possibly survive 

 to maturity, those individuals that are possessed of this useful varia- 



