Permanence and Evolution. 95 



the harmony of nature that fresh Edentata should 

 be produced in North America and Europe, and 

 it is certain that if they had been so produced 

 they would soon have been extinguished, while 

 if no Edentata had ever been found out of South 

 America, then it might have been supposed that 

 the only reason was, that being first developed 

 there, they had not had an opportunity of mi- 

 grating elsewhere. 



The various aborted and apparently useless 

 organs, such as the mammae of the male, 

 the useless wings of the apteryx, and other 

 similar instances, are supposed by evolu- 

 tionists to be quite absurd and inexplicable, 

 except on their theory ; and these things, per- 

 haps more than anything else, serve as a popular 

 argument in its favour. But I find it difficult to 

 understand this, when I consider that if we 

 adopt that version of evolution in which natural 

 selection is supposed to be the sole or principal 

 agent of change, we must suppose that a vast 



