Chap. T. IMMUTABILITY OF SPECIES. 55 



in prc'ct'diiig paragraphs respecting tlie diflerence.s observed between species occurring 

 in (liflerent geographical areas, appHes with the same force to species succeeding 

 each other in tlie course of time. 



"When domesticated animals and cultivated plants arc mentioned as furnishing 

 evidence of the mutability of species, the circumstance is constantly overlooked or 

 passed over in silence, that the first point to be established respecting them, in order 

 to justify any inference from them against the fixity of species, would be to show 

 that each of them has originated from one common stock, which, far from being the 

 case, is flatly contradicted by the positive knowledge we have that the varieties of 

 several of them, at least, are owing to the entire amalgamation of different species.^ 

 The Egyptian monuments show further that many of those so-called varieties which 

 are supposed to be the product of time, are as old as any other animals which have 

 been known to man ; at all e\ents, w^e have no tradition, no monumental evidence 

 of the existence of any wild animal older than that which represents domesticated 

 animals, already as different among themselves as they are now.^ It is, therefore, 

 quite possible that the different races of domesticated animals were originally distinct 

 species, more or less mixed now, as the difierent races of men are. Moreover, 

 neither domesticated animals nor cultivated plants, nor the races of men, are the 

 proper subjects for an investigation respecting the fixity or mutability of specie.s, as 

 all involve already the question at issue in the premises wdiich are assumed in intro- 

 ducing them as evidence in the case. With reference to the different breeds of our 

 domesticated animals, which are known to be produced by the management of man, 

 as well as certain varieties of our cultivated plants, they must be well distinguished 

 from permanent races, which, for aught we know, may be primordial ; for l)reeds 

 are the result of the fostering care of man ; they are the product of the limited 

 influence and control the human mind has over organized beuigs, and not the free 

 product of mere physical agents. They show, therefore, that even the least impor- 

 tant changes which may take place during one and the same cosmic period among 

 animals and plants are controlled by au intellectual joower, and do not I'esult from 

 the immediate action of physical causes. 



So far, then, from disclosing the effects of physical agents, whatever changes are 

 kno^^^l to take place in the course of time among organized beings appear as the 

 result of an intellectual power, and go, therefore, to substantiate the A'iew tliat all 

 the differences observed among finite beings are ordained by the action of the 

 Supreme Intellect, and not determined by ph^'sical causes. This position is still 

 more strengthened Avhen Ave consider that the differences which exist between differ- 

 ent races of domesticated animals and the varieties of our cultivated plants, as well 



' Our fipwls, for instmicc. ^ Nott & Gi-Ipdon, Types of Mankiiul, j). 380. 



