"A grand and almost untrodden field of inquiry will be opened, in the causes 

 and laws of variation, on correlation, on the effects of use and disuse, on the direct 

 action of external conditions, and so forth. The study of domestic productions will 

 rise immensely in value. A new variety raised by man will be a more important 

 and interesting subject for study than one more species added to the infinitude of 

 already recorded species. Our classifications will come to be, as far as they can be 

 so made, genealogies ; and will then truly give what may be called the plan of 

 creation. The rules for classification will no doubt become simpler when we have a 

 definite object in view. We possess no pedigrees or armorial bearings ; and we 

 have to discover and trace tlie many diverging lines of descent in our natural 

 genealogies, by characters of any kind which have long been inherited. Rudimentary 

 organs will speak infallibly with respect to the nature of long-lost structures. 

 Species and groups of species which are called aberrant, and which may fancifully 

 be called living fossils, will aid us in forming a picture of the ancient forms of life. 

 Embryology will often reveal to us the structure, in some degree obscured, of the 

 prototypes of each great class." — Darwin, ' Origin of Specie$.^ 



