TRANSMUTABLE. 37 



CHAPTER III. 



Variation under Nature is the subject of Mr. 

 Darwin's second chapter. He commences by 

 stating that he reserves for his future work the 

 numerous facts by which he can prove that 

 species vary in a state of nature. It is in these 

 first lines of Mr. Darwin's work that we shall 

 find the elements of his theory. For instance, 

 "Do species vary in a state of nature?" The 

 answer which all naturalists will give to this 

 question is in the affirmative; but they by no 

 means mean this in the sense entertained by 

 Mr. Darwin. His answer, reduced to its literal 

 signification is; that variation means an organic 

 change in the fabric of the organism, which has 

 the principle within it of still further change, 

 by successive development through great periods 

 of time, until the animal or plant becomes 

 transformed into an organism totally different 

 from its original form, a wheat plant into an 

 oak tree, or a fish into a human being. 



Now I rejoin to this, that although we have 

 abundance of evidence of variation in species, 

 we have not the slightest atom of proof, or 

 even the shadow of probability, either in com- 

 parative anatomy, or the records of geology, or 

 in anything that is known in the laws of life 

 and development, to prove that species are 



