94 



ACALErilS IN GENERAL. 



Part I. 



exbihiting any evidence of eoniinunity of descent ; while the power that imparted 

 all their peculiarities to the primitive eggs of all the species now living side by 

 side, could also impart similar peculiarities with similar relations, and all degrees 

 of relationship, to any number of other species that have existed previously. Until, 

 therefore, it can be shown that any one species has the ability to delegate such 

 specified peculiarities and relations to any other species or set of species, it is not 

 logical to assume that such a power is inherent in any animal, or that it con- 

 stitutes part of its nature.^ We must look to the original power that imparted 

 life to the first being for the origin of all other beings, however mysterious and 

 inaccessiljle the modes by which all this diversity has been produced, may remain 

 for us. A plausible explanation is no explanation at all, if it does not cover the 

 whole o-round.^ 



^ The difficulty of ascertaining the natural limits 

 of some species, and the mistakes made by natu- 

 ralists when describing individual peculiarities as 

 specific, have nothing to do with the question of the 

 origin of species ; and yet, Darwin places great 

 weight, in support of his theory, upon the ditFer- 

 ences which exist among naturalists in their views 

 of species. Some of the metals are diflieult to 

 distinguish, and have frequently been mistaken, and 

 the specific ditTerences of some may be questioned ; 

 but wliat could that have to do with the (piestiou 

 of the origin of metals, in the minds of tliose who 

 may doubt the original difference of metals' Noth- 

 ing more than the blunders of some naturalists, in 

 identifying species, with the oi'igin of species of ani- 

 mals and plants. The great mischief in our science 

 now lies in the self-complacent confidence with which 

 certain zoologists look upon a few insignificant lines, 

 called diagnoses, which they have the presumption 

 to offer as characteristics of species, or, what is still 

 worse, as checks ui)on others to secure to themselves 

 a nominal priority. Such a treatment of scientific 

 subjects is unwoithy of our age. 



- All the attenq)ts to explain the origin of species 

 may be brought under two categories : some natu- 

 ralists admitting that all organized beings are cre- 

 ated (that is to say, endowed from the beginning 

 of their existence with all their characteristics), while 

 others assume that they arise spontaneously. This 

 classification of the different theories of the origin 



of species may appear objectionable to the sup- 

 porters of the transmutation theory ; but I can 

 perceive no essential difference between their views 

 and the old idea that animals may have arisen 

 spontaneously. They differ only in the modes by 

 which the spontaneous appearance is assumed to be 

 effected. Some believe that physical agents may 

 so influence organized beings as to modify them ; 

 this is the view of DeMaillet, and the Vestiges of 

 Creation : others bidieve that the organized beings 

 themselves change in consequence of their own 

 acts, by changing their mode of life, etc. ; this is 

 the view of Lamarck : others still assume that ani- 

 mals and plants tend necessarily to improve, in 

 consequence of the struggle for life, in wliich the 

 favored races are supposed to survive ; this is the 

 view lately propounded by Darwin. I Ijelieve these 

 theories will, in the end, all share the fote of the 

 theory of spontaneous generations, so called, as the 

 facts of nature shall be confronted more closely with 

 the theoretical assumptions. The theories of De- 

 Maillet, Oken, and Lamarck, are already abandoned 

 by all those who have adopted the transmutation 

 theory of Darwin ; and unless Darwin and his 

 followers succeed in showing th.at the struggle for 

 life tends to something beyond favoring the exist- 

 ence of certain individuals over that of other indi- 

 viduals, they will soon find that they are following 

 a shadow. The assertion of Darwin, which has 

 crept into the title of his work, is, that favored 



