1 1 2 Permanence and Evolution. 



"That this could really occur in every 

 separate case of creation is almost as probable 

 as that seven dice thrown out of a dice-box 

 should give us the same number of points 

 similarly arranged in a hundred successive 

 throws. Notwithstanding the thousands of 

 different ratios which might exist between seven 

 multangular bones, we get always only one, and 

 in the whole range of living and extinct animals 

 we see no exception to the common rule of 

 typical arrangement of the carpal and tarsal 

 bones. The point at issue is, can this uniformity 

 be accounted for by the principle of special 

 creation, or by the theory of descent and modi- 

 fication ? No naturalist can in our time hesitate 

 between the two, and while all the adduced facts 

 are wholly inexplicable by the first theory, they 

 seem most natural in the light of the second. 

 We may still not be fully informed as to all the 

 true causes which induced the variation and 

 consequent differentiation of animal types ; but 



