228 SPECIES NOT 



rock therefore, at a remote period of the pigeon's 

 history, it acquired, accidentally, some altered 

 structure at a later period of life, which will be 

 shewn by the present young bird, when it reaches 

 that age!! 



And see how this monstrous piece of reasoning 

 is applied to Mr. Darwin's doctrine. He takes 

 a genus of birds, which, according to his views, 

 have descended from a common parent, and be- 

 come diversified in form, etc. Then he says, that 

 those many slight successive steps of variation, 

 "having supervened tit a rather late age, and 

 having been inherited at a corresponding age, 

 the young of the new species of our supposed 

 genus, will manifestly tend to resemble each other 

 much more closely than do the adults, just as 

 we have seen in the case of pigeons." In fjir.t, 

 if we take a bird just out of the egg, it repre- 

 sents, according to Mr. Darwin, the permanent 

 condition of one of that bird's ancestors. Every 

 hour gives a new phase presently feathers begin 

 to spring out, that represents the former condi- 

 tions of the bird at a later period, and so on 

 till it flies away, when it has reached the last 

 variation, which constitutes it the perfect bird. 

 u For the embryo is the animal in its less modi- 

 fied state; and in so far it reveals the structure 

 of its progenitor.'" (Page 449.) 



Then Mr. Darwin carries these views up to 

 families, or even classes. "The fore-limbs, for 

 instance, which served as legs in the parent 

 species, may become, by a long course of modiii- 



