134 Bibliographical Notice. 



define them, are entirely, and must be, of this nature, for we are ne- 

 cessarily driven to form our judgment solely from outward characters 

 (and must often trust, as it were, to chance, that our decision, thus 

 arrived at, is correct) ; so that it is quite possible (nay, almost 

 certain) that what one naturalist may rank as a species, another may 

 perhaps, occasionally, believe to be only a variety : nevertheless the 

 idea involved in the two terms is not invalidated on that account ; 

 and it is simply taking advantage of the imperfections of our dis- 

 cernment (whilst compelled to conjecture from the mere characters 

 which are externally visible), to throw discredit on a distinction be- 

 tween essentially different ideas. Man may blunder (and we have 

 but too clear evidence that he often does) ; but that cannot make 

 nature inconsistent. 



There is one point, however, according to Mr. Darwin's own con- 

 fession, which has struck him much : viz. that all those persons who 

 have most closely investigated particular groups of animals and 

 plants, with whom he has ever conversed, or whose treatises he has 

 read, are firmly convinced that each of the well-marked forms was 

 at the first independently created. But, says he, the explanation of 

 this is simple : from long-continued study they are thoroughly im- 

 pressed with the distinctions between the several races, and they 

 ignoi'e all general arguments, — refusing " to sum up in their minds 

 slight differences accumulated during many successive generations." 

 But is this more, we may ask, than special pleading 1 If anybody 

 is capable of forming an opinion on the origin of species, it surely 

 must be those who have most closely studied them ; for, if otherwise, 

 we should arrive at the monstrous conclusion that, in order to gene- 

 ralize well, it is desirable to have only a superficial knowledge of the 

 objects generalized upon ! — a conclusion to which our learned and 

 amiable author, we feel sure, would not subscribe. The true expla- 

 nation seems to be this : not that the study of small details unfits an 

 observer for wider areas of thought, but simply that a generalizing 

 mind is of a higher stamp, and therefore less common, than one of 

 an opposite tendency ; so that there are more collectors in the world 

 than generalizers. But to suppose the accurate study of minutiae 

 to be detrimental to an enlarged interpretation of their results is 

 certainly contrary to experience. 



But let us briefly examine the argument of this volume, and see 

 how it is sustained. In the first chapter, Mr. Darwin ably discusses 

 the question of the variation of certain animals and plants under do- 

 mestication ; and few have paid greater attention to this subject 

 than he has, or been more successful in their experiments. A close 

 study of the varieties (acknowledged as such by all) of the domestic 

 pigeon, the innumerable races of our common cattle, and also of 

 what gardeners term "sporting plants," has long convinced him, as 

 well indeed it might, of the almost endless phases which may be 

 gradually shaped out by the selecting power of man. This will be 

 admitted by all, and by none more readily than by those who believe in 

 the distinct origin of species ; for, as no two species are alike, it follows 

 that the constitutions of all are different ; and if their number, there- 



