42 SPECIES NOT 



book, should in I860 have written a work as- 

 cribing all living things to a common progenitor, 

 and arguing that all animals and plants are but 

 transmuted individuals, possessing within them- 

 selves a the inherent power (variation) of shaping 

 out (natural selection) those permanent states to 

 which the name of species is now applied." 



But the most singular circumstance connected 

 with these sound and well-expressed opinions of 

 Mr. Woollaston three years ago, is that Mr. 

 Darwin not only frequently quotes facts from 

 Mr. W.'s researches in Madeira, in support of 

 his hypothesis, but he actually relies upon some 

 of them as the very basis of his theory ! Surely 

 Mr. Woollaston has not become a convert to 

 Mr. Darwin's views. If so, what value can be 

 attached to the reasonings of scientific men, or 

 the strong "dogmatic decision" with which they 

 draw conclusions from facts. 



I will yet quote another authority that of 

 one of the greatest and most profound naturalists 

 of this or any other age, Louis Agassiz. "It 

 was a great step in the progress of science when 

 it was ascertained that species have fixed char- 

 acters, and that they do not change in the 

 course of time. Hut this fact, for which we 

 are indebted to Cuvier, has acquired a still 

 greater importance since it has been established 

 that even the most extraordinary changes in the 

 mode of existence, and in the conditions under 

 which animals are placed, have no more influence 

 upon their essential characters than the lapse 



