TRANSMUTABLE. 81 



"One might speculate," says Professor Owen, 

 "on the gradual modificability of the individual; 

 on the tendency of certain varieties to survive 

 local changes, and thus progressively diverge 

 from an older type; on the production and 

 fertility of monstrous offspring ; on the possibility, 

 for instance, of a variety of auk being occa- 

 sionally hatched with a somewhat longer wiriglet, 

 and a dwarfed stature; on the probability of 

 such a variety better adapting itself to the 

 changing climate, or other conditions, than the 

 old type, of such an origin of Alca torda, for 

 instance, but to what purpose? Past experience 

 of the chance aims of human fancy, unchecked 

 and unguided by observed facts, shews how 

 widely they have ever glanced away -from the 

 gold centre of truth" (Op. Cit., page 58.) 



Divergence of character is another link in 

 Mr. Darwin's chain. It is one of high impor- 

 tance to his theory. As species present well- 

 marked differences throughout nature, he accounts 

 for this by the lesser difference between varieties 

 being augmented, constituting divergence of 

 form. And here Mr. Darwin is obliged to give 

 up the doctrine of chances. "Mere chance, as 

 we may callt it, might cause one variety to 

 differ from another, and the offspring of this to 

 differ from its parent in a greater degree; but 

 this alone would never account for so habitual 

 and large an amount of difference as that 

 between varieties of the same species, and species 

 of the same genus." 



