TRANSMUTABLE. 75 



the others, really worse than useless. For to give 

 even a shade of probability to such a speculation, 

 Mr. Darwin must prove that all diseceous plants 

 produce nectar, or are sought after by insects; 

 for, though I admit the frequency of this means 

 of fertilizing plants, I object most strongly to 

 the dogma of its being the chief or only means. 

 Look also at the difference between these plants; 

 what botanist would venture to say that the 

 black poplar and the dog's mercury were des- 

 cended from monoecious plants, the result of 

 inoculation by insects? 



I confess that when we look back to the writings 

 of heathen authors, upwards of two thousand years 

 ago, we must feel something akin to shame, that 

 in these enlightened days, we find any scientific 

 men arguing for the possibility of chance having 

 anything whatever to do with the adaptive struc- 

 ture of organized beings. 



"But that the beauty of the world might be 

 eternal," says Cicero, in his "Natura Deorurn," 

 u great care has been taken by the providence of 

 the Gods to perpetuate the different kinds of 

 animals and vegetables. * With regard 



to animals, do we not see with what judgment 

 they were made for the propagation of their 

 species? Nature for this end created some males 

 and some females." * u Many things must 



be omitted on a subject so copious; for it is 

 impossible to relate the great utility of rivers, 

 the fiux and reflux of the sea, the mountains 

 clothed with grass and trees, the salt pits remote 



