104 BOAED OF AGRICULTUEE. 



Now, what is it that we do not know in this matter of 

 transmission ? In the first place, we do not know the ancestry 

 well enough. It is not only that there is this resemblance of 

 the oflspring to one or the other parent, but there is a mixture 

 of the characteristics of the two parents in the ofispring, for 

 the three conditions obtain constantly. There is something 

 else, something still more important. Children are not only 

 the children of their father and mother, but they are the 

 children of their grandfathers and grandmothers ; they are 

 the children of the generations preceding them ; so much so 

 that it is a well-established fact that very often children 

 resemble their grandparents more than they resemble their 

 parents. Here, then, we have a fact showing maintenance of 

 character for more than one generation. Now, our ignorance 

 is with reference to how long that uniformity is maintained. 

 If the views that were entertained before Darwin propounded 

 his opinions (for they .are opinions) are at all correct, that 

 uniformity obtains through all time. If his views are right, 

 it is limited to a very remarkable extent ; limited to such an 

 extent as to show the probability of numerous changes, of 

 changes, indeed, the result of which would be an introduction 

 not only of different races, but of different species ; not only 

 of different species, but of different genera ; not only of 

 different genera, but of different classes of animals. 



According to these views , a reptile must be the offspring of 

 a fish. According to these views, a bird must be the off- 

 spring of a reptile. According to these views, mankind must 

 be the offspring of quadrupeds, as quadrupeds are the offspring 

 of birds. It will be conceded, I suppose, without any ques- 

 tion, that the later animals must be the descendants of the 

 earlier ones, if there is a succession of generations. Now, 

 geology and paleontology, (that is, the knowledge we have 

 of the animals which have existed in former times, and have 

 followed one another,) show us that the classes of higher an- 

 imals, not to take in the whole animal kingdom, have followed 

 onQ another after this order : that fish existed before reptiles, 

 reptiles before birds, birds before the mammalia, or quadru- 

 peds, and that these existed before man. Now, if we are 

 •descended from monkeys, quadrupeds must be descended 

 from birds, birds must be descended from rej)tiles, reptiles 



