TRANSMUTABLE. 21 



links it with the species. If variation were, as 

 Mr. Darwin suggests, a law of nature, the change 

 ought to be so constant and so marked as to 

 enable the naturalist to say, "This is an or- 

 ganic permanent change, brought about by the 

 operation of a natural law: it is not functional, 

 produced by excessive or deficient nutriment, or 

 by crossing with another species. No! I recog- 

 nise in this organism merely a change which I 

 see produced by a law in operation everywhere. 

 This, therefore, is not a variety at all; it is a 

 distinct species;" and he would name it ac- 

 cordingly. 



But is this the fact? Is it not notorious that 

 though varieties do occur, often most numerously, 

 yet the event is entirely exceptional. What are 

 they compared to the myriads of well-marked 

 species which, if left alone in the condition 

 designed for them in nature, pass on through 

 thousands of years unaltered? Where, then, is 

 the law of variation? You can only illustrate 

 variety from the effects which you abnormally 

 produce in confinement. And how weak are the 

 arguments often used even to prove this. 



Mr. Darwin says that fancy pigeons are all 

 descended from the common blue rock, and many 

 other naturalists hold the same opinion, because 

 the peculiar marks of the u blue rock" now and 

 then appear in the wings and tails of the 

 pouter and the short-beaked tumbler. But surely 

 this may have arisen equally well from an 

 accidental cross with the domesticated blue rock, 



