ORIGIN OF SPECIES. 5 



alteration on the germ which is about to be developed, it follows, that in those points where the law 

 has not affected the genn, it should have the same form as in the parent ; and on those points where 

 it has affected the germ, it must produce the alteration, not by creation of new parts, but by 

 alteration of those already existing. If fins are wanted where legs were before, they must be 

 obtained not by the creation of a new organ, but by the alteration of the parts of the 

 leg ; hence the existence of homologies between them. No doubt Mr. Darwin's slow and imper- 

 ceptible variation jjroduces homologies too ; but inasmuch as the establishment (not the first appear- 

 ance, but the establishment) of such changes, is in his theory dependent on the variation being 

 such as to enable the animal to come off successful in the struggle for life, it seemed to me less 

 applicable to those variations (and many such exist), where, so far as we can see, the change has 

 no beneficial effect in that struggle. 



I did not dcnj- the existence of much variation, and of its being continued, to a certain extent, 

 by inheritance ; neither did I ignore the possible bearing of hybridization on the question ; nor did I 

 dispute the existence of the struggle for life, and that that influence cleared away the weakly, and 

 left the strongly endowed. But with perfect conviction on these points, I had not succeeded in 

 bringing mj^ mind to accept the possibility of a new species being eliminated out of any amount of 

 gradual variation, hybridization, or struggle for life, either taken singly or in combination. 



What impressed me more than anything else was the absence of any transitional forms or 

 geological evidence in support of the idea ; I argued that if such transition really existed, it ought to 

 have either been seen or to have left traces of its having been ; but no form has j-et been discovered 

 among fossil remains, which can fairly be adduced, as showing a gradation of form passing, during 

 the coui-se of time, from one species to another. Species varying to a greater or less degree are there 

 found as wo find them existing now ; but they occur at the same time, and have never been found 

 gradually increasing in diversity through successive strata, until they reach the proportions of a 

 new species. In like manner, I looked in vain for any transitional form of existing animals in the 

 act of passing from one tj'pe to another. It appeared to me impossible for them to exist consistently 

 with the preservation of the order which we see in Nature. I argued that if the transition were slow 

 and gradual, there must be a multitude of individuals in different stages of progression towards 

 species, and branching out right and left from the old one, and consequently the homogeneity 

 which is essential to the character of species could not exist : they would never have time to settle 

 into a species. No sooner woidd one have reached that degree of divergence from the type, 

 than its descendants must start again on a fresh progress of variation. If Nature were provided 

 with a brake by which she could moderate and arrest the progress of variation when the species 

 was completed, the case woidd be different. But according to Mr. Darwin, not only time but 

 variation runs its ceaseless course. Were it not for that, we coidd realise the idea that A produced 

 B slightly changed ; B produced C more changed ; C produced D still more altered, and so on until 

 the entire change was effected, always provided that the variation then stopped. But it does not 

 so. Like the Wandering Jew, it must go on — on — without ceasing ; no sooner arrived than it must 

 start again. This would be the residt of variation, supposing it to be accomplished through single 

 individuals, forming .specific centres ; and it appeared to me, that it woidd bo still more hopeless 

 if we abandoned the origin of species through single individuals, and adopted the \-iew of species 

 originating not in individuals, but in numbers. Then we should \vd\c to deal not with a change 

 affecting one individual, one child from each parent, but with one extending over a whole army 

 of descendants ; and I came to the conclusion that it was inconsistent with what we know of the 



