xii.] THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES. 279 



of Fact is on their side, and the elemental forces of 

 Nature are working for them. Not a star comes to the 

 meridian at its calculated time but testifies to the justice 

 of their methods — their beliefs are "one with the falling 

 rain and with the growing corn." By doubt they are 

 established, and open inquiry is their bosom friend. 

 Such men have no fear of traditions however venerable, 

 and no respect for them when they become mischievous 

 and obstructive ; but they have better than mere anti- 

 quarian business in hand, and if dogmas, which ought to 

 be fossil but are not, are not forced upon their notice, 

 they are too happy to treat them as non-existent. 



The hypotheses respecting the origin of species which 

 profess to stand upon a scientific basis, and, as such, 

 alone demand serious attention, are of two kinds. The 

 one, the " special creation ' hypothesis, presumes every 

 species to have originated from one or more stocks, 

 these not being the result of the modification of any 

 other form of living matter — or arising by natural 

 agencies — but being produced, as such, by a super- 

 natural creative act. 



The other, the so-called "transmutation" hypothesis, 

 considers that all existing species are the result of the 

 modification of pre-existing species, and those of their 

 predecessors, by agencies similar to those which at the 

 present day produce varieties and races, and therefore in 

 an altogether natural way ; and it is a probable, though 

 not a necessary consequence of this hypothesis, that all 

 living beings have arisen from a single stock. With 

 respect to the origin of this primitive stock, or stocks, 

 the doctrine of the origin of species is obviously not 

 necessarily concerned. The transmutation hypothesis, 

 for example, is perfectly consistent either with the con- 

 ception of a special creation of the primitive germ, 01 



