

142 SPECIES AND BREEDS 



no way altered the character of the Species, but 

 only developed its pliability under the will of man, 

 that is, under a power similar in its nature and - 

 mode of action to that power to which animals owe 

 their very existence. The influence of man up- 

 on animals is, in other words, the action of mind 

 upon them ; and yet the ordinary mode of argu- 

 ing upon this subject is, that, because the intelli- 

 gence of man has been able to produce certain 

 varieties in domesticated animals, therefore phys- 

 ical causes have produced all the diversity exit- 

 ing among wild ones. Surely, the sounder logic 

 would be to infer, that, because our finite intel- 

 ligence may cause the original pattern to vary 

 by some slight shades of difference, therefore a 

 superior intelligence must have established all the 

 boundless diversity of which our boasted varieties 

 are but the faintest echo. It is the most intelli- 

 gent farmer who has the greatest success in im- 

 proving his breeds ; and if the animals he has so 

 fostered are left to themselves without that intel- 

 ligent care, they return to their normal condition. 

 So with plants : the shrewd, observing, thought- 

 ful gardener will obtain many varieties from his 

 flowers ; but those varieties will fade out, if left 

 to themselves. There is, as it were, a certain 

 degree of pliability and docility in the organiza- 

 tion both of animals and plants, which may be 

 developed by the fostering care of man, and with 



