THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES TT 
respect-be intermediate between these 
it any two species have arisen from a common 
ck in the same way as the carrier and the 
)pouter, say, have arisen from the rock-pi eon, 
then the common stock of these two species need 
‘be no more intermediate between the two than 
on~is—-between~ the carrier and- 
pe iellcaily appreciate the force of this 
} analogy, and all the arguments against the origin 
of species by selection, based on the abserice of 
‘transitional forms, fall to the ground. And Mr. 
Darwin’s position might, we think, have been 
} even stronger than it is if he had not embarrassed 
‘himself with the aphorism, “Natura non facit 
_ saltwm,’ which turns up so often in his pages. 
We believe, as we have said above, that Nature 
does make jumps now and then, and a recognition 
) of the fact is of no small importance in disposing 
of many minor objections to the doctrine of trans- 
mutation. 
- But we must pause. The discussion of Mr. 
Darwin's arguments in detail would lead us far 
beyond the limits within which we proposed, at 
' starting, to confine this article. Our object has 
' been attained if we have given an intelligible, 
however brief, account of the established facts 
- connected with species, and of the relation of the 
explanation of those facts offered by Mr. Darwin to 
_ the theoretical views held by his predecessors and 
his contemporaries, and, above all, to the require- 
