46 Permanence and Evolution. 



or bull, shows the force of inheritance ; the 

 fact of his superiority shows that inheritance 

 is not absolute. It shows this only if it is 

 assumed that all strains of one breed spring 

 from one pair contrary to all we know in 

 modern times, if we suppose all animals to be 

 ''created in nations," as Agassiz supposed of 

 man, then it shows nothing of the kind. But to 

 return to the ox. There are very few things 

 known of the breeding of the ox which are any- 

 thing else but an illustration of these principles. 

 It is alleged that the famous bull, Shakespeare,* 

 by whom the long-horn breed was so much 

 improved, though of the pure Canley race, 

 scarcely inherited a point of the long-horn type, 

 except his horns ; but on examination we find 

 that the genealogy given to prove his purity 

 does not prove it, on the face of it, as all four 



* See Youatt, "Cattle," p. 193, edition 1867. Shakespeare 

 was got by Bakewell's long-horn bull D. out of a daughter of 

 the long-horn bull Twopenny, also bred by Bakewell, but the 

 maternal grandmother seems not to be known. 



