TRANSMUTABLE. 31 



thousand generations another variety will occur, 

 which will produce varieties like itself for another 

 thousand generations, and so on until the variation 

 has so far receded from the original form, that 

 instead of being an oyster it has become a fish; 

 after numberless generations the fish becomes a ser- 

 pent the reptile, in the course of time, changes 

 into a bird and then the bird into a mammal: all 

 its adaptations for living in certain media, its 

 mode of development, and its instincts being 

 changed at the same time that the physical 

 structure is changed. This is my belief." 



But whence, I ask with all deference, did our 

 mammal, which we have just formed, arise? 

 Why, from Mr. Darwin's anomaly, out of one 

 hundred species! What became of the ninety- 

 nine? They, of course, were pure species! They 

 went on developing according to a natural law 

 which would perpetuate them for ever. 



"Stop," again exclaims Mr. Darwin, u why will 

 you continue to misrepresent me. In the course 

 of time there would be other varieties arise. 

 The descendants of the ninety-nine would produce 

 other anomalies, and they would go on multiplying 

 and increasing, and becoming altered in structure, 

 and gaining new parts, and becoming new forms." 



Very well, but what becomes now of your law 

 of inheritance; you are ignoring the rule alto- 

 gether, and throwing all the work upon the 

 exception, or, as you call it, anomaly! And 

 such is the conclusion to which Mr. Darwin's 

 reasoning inevitably tends. If we take the other 



