Xii.] THE 0111 GIN OF SPECIES. 285 



development, and all their parts, in the adult state, are 

 arranged according to the same plan. Man is more like 

 a gorilla than a gorilla is like a lemur. Such are a few, 

 taken at random, among the multitudes of similar facts 

 which modern research has established ; hut when the 

 student seeks for an explanation of them from the sup- 

 porters of the received hypothesis of the origin of species, 

 the reply he receives is, in substance, of Oriental sim- 

 plicity and brevity — "MashaUah! it so pleases God! ; ' 

 There are different species on opposite sides of the 

 isthmus of Panama, because they were created different 

 on the two sides. The pliocene mammals are like the 

 existing ones, because such was the plan of creation ; 

 and we find rudimental organs and similarity of plan, 

 because it has pleased the Creator to set before himself 

 a " divine exemplar or archetype/' and to copy it in his 

 works ; and somewhat ill, those who hold this view 

 imply, in some of them. That such verbal hocus-pocus 

 should be received as science will one day be regarded 

 as evidence of the low state of intelligence in the nine- 

 teenth century, just as we amuse ourselves with the 

 phraseology about Nature's abhorrence of a vacuum, 

 wherewith Torricelli's compatriots were satisfied to 

 explain the rise of water in a pump. And be it recol- 

 lected that this sort of satisfaction works not only 

 negative but positive ill, by discouraging inquiry, and 

 so depriving man of the usufruct of one of the most 

 fertile fields of his great patrimony, Nature. 



The objections to the doctrine of the origin of species 

 by special creation which have been detailed, must have 

 occurred, with more or less force, to the mind of every 

 one who has seriously and independently considered the 

 subject. It is therefore no wonder that, from time to 

 time, this hypothesis should have been met by countei 

 hypotheses, all as well, and some better, founded than 



