154 Natural Theology. 



water. Even in so extreme a case as this, if the sup- 

 ply of insects were constant, and if better adapted 

 competitors did not already exist in the country, I 

 can see no difficulty in a race of bears being ren- 

 dered by natural selection more and more aquatic 

 in their structure and habits, with larger* and larger 

 mouths, till a creature was produced as monstrous 

 as the whale." 



We have in this extract a good illustration of the 

 changes in structure which it is claimed can be 

 produced by use of organs or by habits of the animal. 



The principle of variation of species and natural 

 selection, say the development theorists, is enough 

 to account for all the distinctions we observe in 

 those kinds that are recognised as species. Now 

 let us see how this fact of variation stands histori- 

 cally. When we point to the rocks as proof of dis- 

 tinct creations, we are told that this record is only 

 imperfectly read as yet, and so the transition forms 

 have not been found. When we appeal to living 

 forms, we defy them to produce a single instance in 

 which anything but an apple has been raised from 

 an apple-seed. Untold kinds of apples have been 

 produced, but we wait for the first fruit to be raised 

 from an apple-seed that the most unlearned in 

 botany would not know to be apple. The same 

 constancy of species is found in all our fruits that 

 vary most. We see by this that in all the variation, 

 there are certain bounds beyond which it cannot go, 

 It never blots out the creative idea in the plant. 

 And the same is true of animals. Has there, in all 



