96 DARWINIANA. 



say, is supernatural ; their very question is, whether 

 we have yet gone back to the origin, and can affirm 

 that the present forms of plants and animals are the 

 primordial, the miraculously created ones. And, even 

 if they admit that, they will still inquire into the 

 order of the phenomena, into the form of the miracle. 

 You might as well expect the child to grow up content 

 with what it is told about the advent of its infant 

 brother. Indeed, to learn that the new-comer is the 

 gift of God, far from lulling inquiry, only stimulates 

 speculation as to how the precious gift was bestowed. 

 That questioning child is father to the man — is phi- 

 losopher in short-clothes. 



Since, then, questions about the origin of species 

 will be raised, and have been raised — and since the 

 theorizings, however different in particulars, all pro- 

 ceed upon the notion that one species of plant or 

 animal is somehow derived from another, that the dif- 

 ferent sorts which now flourish are lineal (or unlineal) 

 descendants of other and earlier sorts — it now con- 

 cerns us to ask, What are the grounds in Nature, the 

 admitted facts, which suggest hypotheses of derivation 

 in some shape or other ? Reasons there must be, and 

 plausible ones, for the persistent recurrence of theories 

 upon this genetic basis. A study of Darwin's book, 

 and a general glance at the present state of the natural 

 sciences, enable us to gather the following as among 

 the most suggestive and influential. We can only 

 enumerate them here, without much indication of 

 their particular bearing. There is — 



1. The general fact of variability, and the general 

 tendency of the variety to propagate its like — the 



