SPECIES AKD SUBSPECIES. 227 



little doubt that it has bridged over the chasm which separated 

 them, and that by enabling both to look at the question from a 

 new point of view it will, in the end, lead to agreement. 



Darwin's marvellous observations have of late set aU the w^orld 

 thinking about variation and variability, and have already stimulated 

 to an enormous extent the observing faculties of naturalists. It 

 is, therefore, a matter of interest, at the present time, to know what a 

 zealous advocate of the immutability of species, and the champion of 

 the school of minute observers, has to say for himself. M. Jordan's 

 views, on both these subjects, are well known to be extreme. He 

 not only believes in the permanence of species throughout all time, 

 but looks upon this rather as a postulate to be taken for granted, 

 than as a matter to be proved. Those who differ from him on this 

 point are too heterodox to be reasoned with. Strange pantheistic 

 phantoms flit before his eyes when he thinks of their plausible but 

 dangerous heresies. With such fears and fancies we need not 

 meddle. Fortunately, when we abstract them, we find him, in many 

 respects, an acute, patient, and careful observer, and withal, as we 

 believe, perfectly conscientious. A firm believer in his o^vn results, 

 and isolated in a great measure by their peculiar nature, he is sadly 

 disappointed that they are not universally adopted, regards himself 

 as a martyr to science, looks forward to the appreciation of posterity 

 as a recompense for the neglect with which he is treated by the 

 present generation of naturalists ; compares himself, of coiu'se, to 

 Galileo, and applies very hard names to all who refuse to accept his 

 conclusions. It is no doubt a pity that he cannot bring himself to 

 give to others the same credit for good faith which he so emphatically 

 claims for himself, and that he should go out of his way to impute 

 improper or unworthy motives to those who differ from him in the 

 inferences to be di'awn from observed facts. Unappreciated dis- 

 coverers are however, as a rule, susceptible, and we must be content 

 to take the abuse, and, at the same time, to glean what we can from 

 a work which contains, along with much that is improbable and 

 unsatisfactory, a great number of curious observations, and from 

 the very faults and mistakes of which we may learn a valuable 

 lesson. 



M. Jordan has been in the habit for many years of cultivating 



in his garden a great variety of plants, introduced from various 



. parts of France, or raised from seeds collected by himself, or sent to 



him by his correspondents. Annual plants he often sows broadcast 



