94 DARWINISM STATED BY DARWIN HIMSELF. 



it has so pleased the Creator to command that the past 

 and present inhabitants of the world should appear in a 

 certain order and in certain areas ; that he has impressed 

 on them the most extraordinary resemblances, and has j 

 classed them in groups subordinate to groups. But by / 

 such statements we gain no new knowledge ; we do not/ 

 connect together facts and laws ; we explain nothing. ' 



p a These facts have as yet received no explana- 



tion on the theory of independent creation ; 

 they can not be grouped together under one point of view, 

 but each has to be considered as an ultimate fact. As the 

 first origin of life on this earth, as well as the continued 

 life of each individual, is at present quite beyond the 

 scope of science, I do not wish to lay much stress on the 

 greater simplicity of the view of a few forms or of only 

 one form having been originally created, instead of in- 

 numerable miraculous creations having been necessary 

 at innumerable periods ; though this more simple view 

 accords well with Maupertuis's philosophical axiom of 

 "least action." 



HOW FAR THE THEORY MAY BE EXTENDED. 



p 13 In considering how far the theory of natu- \ 



ral selection may be extended — that is, in de- f 

 termining from how many progenitors the inhabitants of / 

 the world have descended — we may conclude that at least/ 

 all the members of the same class have descended from y I 

 single ancestor. A number of organic beings are included ' 

 in the same class, because they present, independently of 

 their habits of life, the same fundamental type of struct- 

 ure, and because they graduate into each other. More- 

 over, members of the same class can in most cases be 

 shown to be closely alike at an early embryonic age. 



