TRANSMUTABLE. 221 



be conceded, that birds have arisen from one 

 progenitor, or, at least, he assumes it for the 

 sake of argument, admitting "the possibility;" 

 but then he entirely denies the remotest possi- 

 bility of birds and fishes, or reptiles and mam- 

 mals, having had a common origin; and he 

 concludes by the following : "So too there seems 

 to us so much in the psychical capacity of man, 

 however degraded, to separate him from the nearest 

 of the mammalian class, that we can far more 

 easily believe him to have had a common an- 

 cestry with the chimpanzee, and to have been 

 separated from it, by a series of progressive 

 modifications." 



Now, of the two opinions I think that of Mr. 

 Darwin's, infinitely the most honest. He states 

 a theory, believes it to be true, and boldly says 

 what he considers, is the inevitable consequence. 

 The reviewer, on the contrary, believes Mr. 

 Darwin's theory right, at the same time that he 

 knocks it down, by writing for the perfection of 

 the geological record, and denying its legitimate 

 consequences. 



If Mr. Darwin's theory holds good, as to the 

 common ancestry of the gold-crested wren, and 

 the ostrich, or dinornis, the eagle, and the par- 

 tridge, the parrot, and the nightingale, the pike, 

 and the minnow, the salmon, and the perch, then 

 in the name of consistency, why is it not good 

 for the monkey, and the man? The reviewer 

 shields himself under the psychical difference. I 

 am afraid Mr. D. will not accept such a compromise. 



