TRANSMUTABLE. 87 



have now no living representatives, and which 

 are known to us only as fossils. As we now and 

 then see a thin straggling branch springing from 

 a fork low down, and which by some chance has 

 been favoured, and is still alive on its summit, 

 so we occasionally see an animal like the orni- 

 thorhyncus or lepidosiren, which in some small 

 degree connects, by its affinities, two large branches 

 of life, and which has apparently been saved 

 from fatal competition, by having inhabited a 

 protected station ! 



As buds give rise by growth to fresh buds, 

 and these, if vigorous, branch out and overtop on 

 all sides many a feebler branch, so by generation 

 I believe it has been with the great Tree of Life, 

 which fills with its dead and broken branches the 

 crust of the earth, and covers the surface with 

 its ever-branching and beautiful ramifications." 

 (pp. 129-30.) 



I have quoted this simile at length, because it 

 well expresses Mr. Darwin's views, and it equally 

 well expresses my objections. 



Let the tree be an oak, which has been standing 

 for a thousand years. Then I say the root and 

 stem represent the species a thousand years ago; 

 the brandies its various descendants; some have 

 lived to propagate their kind, others have died, 

 and are represented by the dead branches. Each 

 descendant has become in the shape of a large 

 branch the progenitor of other forms, but all of 

 the same species. The buds bursting into leaf, 

 under the sun of spring, represent the thousands 



