TRANSMUTABLE. 



to argue upon for reasons for believing for the 

 scientific basis of a rational induction alas! we 

 get nothing but the doctrine of "natural selection !" 

 of "modification of form !" of "divergence of cha- 

 racter !" of "correlation of growth !" or we are 

 cooly referred with inimitable equanimity to that 

 dark unfathomable abyss, the "Imperfection of the 

 Geological Record !" 



That domestic animals of the same genus will 

 modify, as Mr. Darwin has shewn, no one ever 

 doubted. That climate, habit, difference in food, 

 and careful and judicious crossing will alter the 

 races of animals, as to certain unimportant points 

 of structure, is a truth which no naturalist ever 

 denied. But the pigeon reared by the fancier is 

 still a pigeon ; the short-horned ox and the Devon 

 are still most unmistakably bovine; the racer and 

 the cart-horse still proclaim their brotherhood; the 

 greyhound and the spaniel are still dogs ! Granted, 

 if you will, they may have been derived from the 

 same stock. Yet how immensely different is the 

 question of such a modification from that which 

 by any process of natural change, could convert 

 the water-breathing fish into the air-breathing 

 mammal, or the bird with air-filled bones (so 

 beautifully adapted to give it lightness and buoy- 

 ancy in the atmosphere,) and its complex flying 

 apparatus, into the crawling reptile, the fish, or 

 the quadruped! 



Not only is there no proof tendered of anything 

 approaching to such conversions as these, but the 

 author has been forced to indulge in speculations 



