On the Origin of Species, 101 



treatment which we have indicated. We do not however value 

 him the less on account of his boldness and rash self-sacrifice in 

 the cause of science. We follow him with pleasure over many- 

 agreeable and instructive paths not previously explored, and we 

 shrink back only when he leads us to the brink of a precipice, 

 and we fail to perceive the good land which he says lies beyond, 

 or to place confidence in the bridge, thinner than gossamer, which 

 he has woven to bear our feet over the gulf that separates the 

 proved ground of specific variability from the mystery of specific 

 difference. We regard this as the most accurate and concise 

 statement that can be made respecting the character of this book. 

 It elaborately investigates the question of variation of species, and 

 illustrates its laws in a very full and satisfactory manner, though 

 giving to some of these laws an undue prominence as compared 

 with others. It then attempts to apply the laws of variation to 

 an entirely different series of phenomena, those of specific diver- 

 sity, and finding some analogies between the characters that dis- 

 tinguish species and varieties, seeks on this ground to break down 

 all specific distinction in respect to origin, and to reduce all species 

 to mere varieties of ancient and perhaps perished prototypes. 



The work thus divides itself naturally into two distinct and 

 quite dissimilar portions: 1st. The careful induction of facts 

 bearing on the nature and laws of variation, in which the author 

 appears in all his strength as a patient and reliable zoologist ; 

 and, 2nd, The wild and fanciful application of the results thus 

 attained to another class of phenomena with which they have no 

 connection except that of mere analogy. We shall endeavor to 

 distinguish these two portions of the work, but cannot avoid 

 treating of them together. 



Variation occurs under two very different conditions. It takes 

 place in domesticated animals and plants, and in animals and 

 plants in a wild state. Very properly our author first examines 

 its conditions under domestication, in which state variation is 

 much more extensive and also more easily observed. The great 

 variations that occur in a state of domestication are no doubt due 

 to changed and unnatural conditions of life ; but farther than this 

 we know nothing of their precise causes. On this subject our 

 author indulges in some preliminary speculations, and tries to 

 rid the subject of what he terms misconceptions, some of which 

 are, however, only facts too stubborn to be bent to his theory. 

 For example, in speaking of the prevalent idea, that domesticated 



