282 THE WORLD-ENERGY 



absolutely wanting. Besides the a priori consideration 

 that all beginnings are in the very nature of the case 

 characterized by homogeneity,, there are the familiar facts 

 of the abundant remains of subtropical flora and fauna, 

 even those of high orders and therefore of a relatively 

 late period,, in regions where now their development 

 would be impossible. It would seem,, then, that we have 

 here a clue to the simplest possible explanation of the 

 coincident existence of the same species of organisms in 

 regions so widely separated as to make the hypothesis 

 of migration from either area to the other very difficult 

 to accept, especially in those cases where oceanic barriers 

 intervene ingenious and plausible as is Darwin's argu- 

 ment in support of such possibility.* 



In this connection, too, it would seem that we have 

 here a possible clue to the primary cause of the extreme 

 differences as between one and another of the races of 

 man. On the hypothesis here suggested these differ- 

 ences would be due, not merely to differences of climatic 

 conditions working through indefinite periods upon 

 descendants from the same ancestors. On the contrary, 

 they would be due primarily to inherited peculiarities 

 running back through lines of ancestry that were distinct 

 possibly from the very beginnings of life on the earth. 

 And this, it may be remarked by the way, seems to pre- 

 sent a possible ground of reconciliation as between the 

 views of Darwin and those of Agassiz respecting the 

 mode of origination of the human race, since it would 

 show that instead of their hypotheses respecting the 



* Darwin was certainly mistaken when he assumed that the hypothesis 

 of the simultaneous arising of the same species at many points of the earth's 

 surface is equivalent to calling in the " agency of a miracle." See " Origin of 

 Species," (N. Y. Ed.) p. 330. 



