520 THE CAT. [CHAP. xv. 



directions, and partly to external influences which, in 

 some respects act restrictively, and in other respects act 

 as a stimulus to transformation. 



The writer has elsewhere * stated at length his reasons for con- 

 cluding that the genesis of new species is due mainly to an 

 internal cause, which may he stimulated and aided, or may he 

 more or less restricted, hy the action of surrounding conditions. 



The notion that the origin of species is due to "Natural Selec- 

 tion " is a crude and inadequate conception which has heen welcomed 

 by many persons on account of its apparent simplicity, and has 

 been eagerly accepted by others on account of its supposed fatal 

 effects on a belief in Divine creation. 



Its anti-theological character has been declared by a conspicuous 

 English advocate, to be " one of its greatest merits," while it has 

 been made use of as a fundamental dogma in the various polemical 

 works of Professor Haeckel. 



The present author's views as to "Natural Selection" having been 

 already fully expressed in former works, it is not thought necessary 

 that further space should here be occupied by their repetition. 



10. Before entering upon the question of " Origin," a few 

 words of preliminary explanation seem to be needed. Obviously 

 before we can enter profitably upon the discussion of any pro- 

 position, we must clearly understand its terms, and it would be a 

 useless task to discuss the origin of anything as to the very 

 existence of which we may have reason to doubt. 



Before enquiring into the origin of species, it will be well to 

 make sure what we mean by a "species," and that there really 

 is any such thing. 



We have to consider the origin of the cat, as a " species " of 

 the genus Felis, of the family Felidce. "What then is a " species," 

 what a " genus," and what a " family? " Who has ever seen or 

 handled one of these entities ? Individual cats and cat-like creatures 

 of various kinds abound, but no one pretends to have anywhere 

 met with a " family " or a " genus." Why then should a " species" 

 be spoken of as if it had more reality in it than they ? In fact it 

 has just as much and no more reality than they have. A " species," 

 _like a "genus," or a "family," or an "order," or a "class," is an 

 IDEA ; and its existence, as a species, is only ideal. 



Has it then no reality whatever? Undoubtedly it has. A species 

 .is real, inasmuch as any individual animals actually have in the 

 concrete those very characters and powers which exist abstractedly 

 in the idea of the species. It is just the same with every " genus," 

 ;< family," "order," and "class." Each and all of these are "real," 

 inasmuch as the abstract ideas they may severally refer to, are 

 concretely embodied in numerically separate and distinct, individual, 

 material, living creatures. 



* See the " Genesis of Species," and also Chapters VIII., IX., X., and XIV., of 

 "Lessons from Nature." 





