TRANSMUTABLE. 213 



absurdity on the face of it, and is so completely 

 opposed to all the known laws of biology, that 

 the ridicule is inherent in the proposition, not 

 in the criticism. 3rd. If a doctrine assumes, 

 that man is but the advanced development of 

 one of the diverging forms of a primitive pri- 

 mordial organism, which has had an existence 

 beyond the remotest possible idea of time, and 

 will have, in an altered condition, an equally 

 long future on earth; then, I say, the bible 

 cannot be a true record of Divine Revelation, 

 and I regard this record of infinitely more im- 

 portance than the opinions of Mr. Darwin or his 

 supporters. And when again lie tells us that 

 important structural alterations have proceeded 

 from an accidental variation, and refers the proofs 

 of a Divine Creator to secondary, and unknown, 

 and unintelligible causes, I think no language 

 can be too strong in deprecating such materialism. 

 The writer of this paper, who (though his articles 

 appear only in popular magazines, the readers 

 of which are not the best judges of their truth,) 

 is still entitled to attention, because he justly 

 lays claim to a knowledge of some of the higher 

 branches of physiology, in his eagerness to defend 

 Mr. Darwin, reverts to the hackneyed question of, 

 what is a species? Nothing, in fact, is easier 

 than to answer the question as it applies to the 

 great mass of living things. An owl, or an oak, 

 are known by characters, which distinguish them 

 from every other analogous or distinct form. 

 They are therefore species. A man, a horse, a 



