256 LAY SERMONS, ESSAYS, AND REVIEWS. [xn. 



There is no fault to be found with Mr. Darwin s method, then; 

 but it is another question whether he has fulfilled all the 

 conditions imposed by that method. Is it satisfactorily proved, 

 in fact, that species may be originated by selection ? that there 

 is such a thing as natural selection ? that none of the phenomena 

 exhibited by species are inconsistent with the origin of species 

 in this way ? If these questions can be answered in the 

 affirmative, Mr. Darwin s view steps out of the rank of hypo 

 theses into those of proved theories ; but, so long as the evidence 

 at present adduced falls short of enforcing that affirmation, so 

 long, to our minds, must the new doctrine be content to remain 

 among the former an extremely valuable, and in the highest 

 degree probable, doctrine, indeed the only extant hypothesis 

 which is worth anything in a scientific point of view ; but still a 

 hypothesis, and not yet the theory of species. 



After much consideration, and with assuredly no bias against 

 Mr. Darwin s views, it is our clear conviction that, as the 

 evidence stands, it is not absolutely proven that a group of 

 animals, having all the characters exhibited by species in Nature, 

 has ever been originated by selection, whether artificial or 

 natural. Groups having the morphological character of species, 

 distinct and permanent races in fact, have been so produced over 

 and over again; but there is no positive evidence, at present, 

 that any group of animals has, by variation and selective breed 

 ing, given rise to another group which was even in the least 

 degree infertile with the first. Mr. Darwin is perfectly aware of 

 this weak point, and brings forward a multitude of ingenious and 

 important arguments to dimmish the force of the objection. 

 We admit the value of these arguments to their fullest extent ; 

 nay, we will go so far as to express our belief that experiments, 

 conducted by a skilful physiologist, would very probably obtain 

 the desired production of mutually more or less infertile breeds 

 from a common stock, in a comparatively few years ; but still, as 

 the case stands at present, this &quot; little rift within the lute &quot; is 

 not to be disguised nor overlooked. 



In the remainder of Mr. Darwin s argument our own private 



