246 SPECIES NOT 



I repeat again, there must be no trifling with 

 tli is subject. The followers of Mr. Darwin are, 

 it is clear from the discussion at Oxford, each 

 of them in turn desirous of throwing down the 

 pillars, upon which the theory is built. Mr. 

 Huxley does not consider that it depends so much 

 upon the transmutation of species, as how species 

 become permanent, both of which opinions arc 

 utterly opposed to the teaching of Mr. Darwin's 

 book. Mr. Lubbock accepts the theory, but thinks 

 time has nothing to do with it; whereas Mr. 

 Darwin, not satisfied with two billions and two 

 hundred million years, is obliged to imagine a 

 world equally long at least before this, and to believe 

 in a future of the same magnitude; while Dr. 

 Hooker denies that the conversion of a bear into 

 a whale, a fish into a flying squirrel, or a bus- 

 tard into an ostrich, are instances of transmutation 

 of species! 



Surely we do not require that u grasp of in- 

 tellect," alluded to in the "Gardener's Chronicle," 

 by the gentleman who lays claim to a prior 

 enunciation of the natural selection theory, to 

 understand a system built upon a bed of sand. 

 and with materials which are tumbling about the 

 ears of those, who are trying to strengthen the 

 tottering structure ! 



In addition to the report of the Oxford Meeting, 

 T have also just seen (July 24th.,) the number 

 of "The Quarterly Review," for July. It is sin- 

 gular that the writer of this powerful article 

 should have taken the same line of argument as 



