TRANSMUTABLE. 7 



never intended that the theory he has endeavoured 

 to establish, should carry with it the fearful 

 conclusion to which I have alluded. A recent 

 writer in one of our popular weekly publications 

 contends that there is nothing irreligious in Mr. 

 Darwin's views, and that a Great First Cause 

 may act with as much design by secondary means 

 as he can by special creation. In other words, 

 this writer would have us believe that the first 

 primordial form, from which all others sprung, 

 contained within itself the elements of perpetual 

 change, each variation being adapted to the ever- 

 varying condition of the world. Now if this 

 were true, variation of species would be a con- 

 stant natural law acting from all time with definite 

 pre-ordained precision and regularity ! But Mr. 

 Darwin does not lay claim to that which is in 

 itself a manifest absurdity, for the very word 

 variation implies a type or normal form, from 

 which the species varies. 



Whatever however may be the modus operandi 

 of Mr. Darwin's law of variation, in affecting the 

 astounding results which he ascribes to it, there 

 can, I think, be no doubt that we are entitled 

 to have something like evidence of the correctness 

 of his facts, and the soundness of his arguments. 



If Mr. Darwin had limited his work to the 

 simple question of the "Variation of Species," I 

 could readily have joined in much of the praise 

 with which the book has been received by some 

 who have a knowledge of Comparative Anatomy, 

 and by a great many who are entirely ignorant 



