50 DARWINIAN A. 



this difference in judgment affects almost half of the 

 species ! 



We pass to a second difficulty in the way of Mr. 

 Darwin's theory ; to a case where we are perhaps en- 

 titled to demand of him evidence of gradation like 

 that which connects the present with the Tertiary mol- 

 lusca. Wide, very wide is the gap, anatomically and 

 physiologically (we do not speak of the intellectual) 

 between the highest quadrumana and man ; and com- 

 paratively recent, if ever, must the line have bifur- 

 cated. But where is there the slightest evidence of a 

 common progenitor? Perhaps Mr. Darwin would 

 reply by another question: where a.re the fossil re- 

 mains of the men who made the flint knives and arrow- 

 heads of the Somme Yalley ? 



We have a third objection, one, fortunately, which 

 has nothing to do with geology. We can only state it 

 here in brief terms. The chapter on hybridism is 

 most ingenious, able, and instructive. If sterility of 

 crosses is a special original arrangement to prevent the 

 confusion of species by mingling, as is generally as- 

 sumed, then, since varieties cross readily and their 

 offspring is fertile inter se, there is a fundamental dis- 

 tinction between varieties and species. Mr. Darwin 

 therefore labors to show that it is not a special endow- 

 ment, but an incidental acquirement. He does show 

 that the sterility of crosses is of all degrees.; upon 

 which we have only to say, Natura nonfacit sdltum, 

 here any more than elsewhere. But, upon his theory 

 he is bound to show how sterility might be acquired, 

 through natural selection or through something else. 

 And the difficulty is, that, whereas individuals of the 



