DARWINISM: ITS WEAK AND STRONG POINTS. 65 



if life were to come to an end by some catastrophe, it 

 would soon appear again when original conditions 

 were repeated, a single cell coming first, and more 

 and more complex forms afterward, until the widest 

 range of variation be reached. Now, all this is but 

 Darwinism in a crude form. If an organism, how- 

 ever simple in structure, could be endowed with vital 

 attributes, through an inherent law of variation a 

 monad might be evolved into a mammal. 



]STo power was needed beyond what is comprised 

 in natural laws. A deviation in any creature estab- 

 lished a variety, and from varieties come species, and 

 from species genera, orders, kingdoms, and empires, 

 in the development of animals from lower to higher 

 forms. 



Linnseus and Cuvier, who have given us our pres- 

 ent classification of plants and animals, believed in 

 special creations and undeviating types. These great 

 zoologists looked upon fundamental differences as 

 permanent, and upon variation as the result of acci- 

 dental circumstances or chance surroundings. Species 

 was defined as a combination of peculiarities in a 

 group of creatures so closely resembling each other 

 that they always filiated or formed fruitful unions ; 

 varieties were notable departures from original stock, 

 yet individuals of any number of varieties would 

 filiate with one another. Pugs and pointers among 

 dogs would form prolific associations, while wolves, 

 foxes, and dogs constituted so many species of the 

 canine family, and would not therefore voluntarily 

 filiate. This method of arranging animals into species 

 founded upon sexual mating is not without its defects, 

 yet it is tolerably definite. For instance, in the genus 

 equidce, the different species will cross, yet the progeny 



