TRANSMUTABLE. 63 



this design as exemplified by special creation, or 

 is it the result of an unknown and inexplicable 

 law of variation? 



But Mr. Darwin argues that this "struggle for 

 existence" is one of the chief means by which 

 the weakest goes to the wall, and the varied 

 species having by good luck obtained the develop- 

 ment of some organ it had not before, gains 

 the day only in its turn to be driven out of 

 the field by some more fortunate subject of "natural 

 selection !" 



But is this so? Let us look for a moment, 

 say, into a drop of water. Perhaps the first 

 thing I shall see there through the microscope 

 is a shapeless urisymmetrical mass, of a fleshy sub- 

 stance, having life without members to, or orifices 

 in its body. I see it feed. Another (more highly 

 organized) form comes in contact with this lump 

 of flesh, and is instantly fixed there by the vital 

 instincts of the creature. Well, I look on with 

 wonder, and I see this animal called the Ameba 

 enclose its victim within its flesh; there is no 

 opening, but yet the animalcule is dining ! Gra- 

 dually the prey passes through the textures of 

 the ameba's body into its cavity, and the opening 

 closes up. When thoroughly digested, the remains 

 are seen to be transmitted outwards again in 

 the same way ! 



Now we can hardly conceive an animal form 

 more simple in its organization than this. Whence, 

 according to Mr. Darwin's doctrine, did it come? 

 Is it the result of one of his lines of divergence, 



