194 THE DOCTRINE OF DESCENT. 



into the bird as a " chance," if he does not peradventure 

 regard it as predestined. To us, who trace the bird 

 backwards to its origin, it seems the result of mechanical 

 causes. 



Let us now recapitulate what we have gained by 

 the doctrine of Descent, based on the theory of selec- 

 tion ; it is the knowledge of the connection of organisms 

 as consanguineous beings. The greater the accordance 

 of internal and external characteristics, the closer is the 

 kinship. The further we trace the pedigree to its origin, 

 the fewer become the characters persisting to these 

 roots, the more do these characters reveal themselves as 

 acquisitions in the lapse of time. As we eliminate these 

 acquisitions and the inherited characters, the further 

 we probe, the more do we restrict and reconstruct the 

 pedigrees of the various groups.*^^ 



We do the very thing which in linguistic inquiry 

 is deemed extremely natural and scientific. The ideas 

 and words common to the individuals of a linguistic 

 family are the inheritance from the intellectual and 

 linguistic property of the original people, from which 

 the pedigree of the family has ramified. This so-called 

 '* chance " prevailed In the formation of the derived 

 languages neither more or less than In the evolution 

 of organisms from their original forms. 



