54 SPECIES NOT 



we behold an "unknown element of special 

 creation," uniting in itself the male and female 

 structure. This primordial form has by its 

 liability to vary in its progeny, become the 

 parent of every plant and animal in the world ! 

 We are not told how long it remained sole 

 tenant of the mighty world how long the air 

 and the deep waited for their creatures. We 

 are led to suppose that some time after it was 

 called into existence some one of its descendants 

 exhibited by mere chance, not by natural law, 

 for we have seen a natural law cannot be par- 

 tial in its operation, some slight variation. 

 This alteration was transmitted to its offspring, 

 and again it varied. 



As it can be pretty clearly proved that man 

 has not varied towards a different form, at least 

 during the historic period, it is clear these 

 variations, slight as they were, must each have 

 taken thousands or even millions of years to 

 form. Never mind; land, air, and water are pa- 

 tient; they still wait for their living tenants. At 

 length our organism arrives at a point in which 

 a great "struggle for existence" takes place; one 

 class of descendants shews a decided tendency to 

 "vary" into plants, another has an animal 

 tendency. The animal being the strongest wins 

 the day, and henceforth tafces the lead, and we 

 have perfected the first animal form ! Happy 

 in its defeat, the unconscious plant takes root 

 in the earth, and we have the first vegetable 

 structure. Of course these forms must be her- 



