248 CONSEQUENCES OF HYBRIDISM. [BOOK n. 



of change was in operation in the early ages after the deluge, 

 which had ceased, or at least was greatly diminished, before 

 the era at which our knowledge of events began to be more 

 precise, and handed down by writing. I shall be told that 

 these different races of men breed freely together, and that 

 these dogs intermix, and produce mongrels also, and that we 

 see thereby that they are only varieties of one kind. Granted ; 

 I entertain no doubt of their having respectively descended 

 from one pair of created individuals ; but how do you prove 

 to me that the cat, lynx, tiger, panther, lion, &c., did not 

 descend from one created pair ? I am rather inclined to 

 think that they did (but this only a surmise), and even the 

 horse and the ass from one created pair; and I am quite 

 unable to believe that the several sylvise of the wren family, 

 some of which can with difficulty be distinguished except by 

 the proportions of their quills, and which have nevertheless 

 very diverse habits, notes, and nests, were created separately 

 and specially ; and, when I look to the vegetable races, I am 

 still more unwilling to assent to the assertion, that every 

 plant, which this or that botanist has called a distinct species, 

 or even a distinct genus, had a special creation in the period 

 before the sun and moon shone upon this world, when God 

 created vegetables. Upon what authority is such an assertion 

 made ? Upon none but the dictum of those who are pleased 

 to inculcate it. Upon what ground is it made ? Upon none 

 that will bear investigationsupon a rash assumption that 

 everything cross-bred is st||ile, and that if the offspring is 

 sterile the parents are thereby proved to have been descended 

 severally from the Creator. In the first place, the fact is 

 even false as to animals. Buffon records an instance of the 

 fertility of a mule. I have seen that which I am satisfied was 

 a hybrid between a bitch and a fox, which was the father of 

 many puppies. But if the fact were positively true, how is 

 it to be proved that the constitution and frame may not have 

 undergone such changes 'in the diversification as to prevent 

 intermixture ? If I can show that in one genus of plants 

 cross-breeding is not only easy, but more easily obtained than 

 fertility by the plant's own pollen, and that in others, so 

 closely allied to it, as to make it a question whether they are 



