186 



I do not, however, assert that every species is liable to 

 be interfered with ab extra ; that is a question which 

 the greater or less susceptibility of the several races, as 

 originally constituted, can alone decide ; still less would 

 I willingly lend a helping hand to that most mischievous 

 of dogmas, that they are //-important in their opera- 

 tion, or, in other words, that they possess within them- 

 selves the inherent power (though it may not invariably 

 be exercised) of shaping out (provided a sufficient time 

 be granted them, and in conjunction with the advancing 

 requirements of the creatures themselves) those perma- 

 nent organic states to which the name of species (in a 

 true sense) is now applied. Such a doctrine is in reality 

 nothing more than the transmutation theory, in all its 

 unvarnished fulness ; and I do not see how it can be for 

 a moment maintained, so long as facts (and not reason- 

 ing only) are to be the basis of our speculations. I 

 repeat, that it is merely within fixed specific bounds that 

 I would advocate a freedom of development, in obedi- 

 ence to influences from without : only I would widen 

 those limits to a much greater extent than has been 

 ordinarily done, so as to let in the controlling prin- 

 ciple of physical agents, as a significant adjunct for our 

 contemplation. 



It does indeed appear strange that naturalists, who 

 have combined great synthetic qualities with a profound 

 knowledge of minutiae and detail, should ever have 

 upheld so monstrous a doctrine as that of the transmis- 

 sion of one species into another, a doctrine, however, 



