10 DARWINISM. 



shown in the sequel, it has furnished Mr. Darwin with 

 an additional argument to prove that species are not 

 permanent. It must be borne in mind that when a 

 character reverts from a very distant ancestor, the 

 creature which inherits it will have numerous other 

 qualities, all probably more or less differing from those 

 originally united to the reversionary character ; just as 

 if, in the School of Art, a picture by Raffaelle were 

 shown to fifty pupils, and when it had been copied by 

 the first, the second pupil were to make a copy of the 

 copy, and so on to the end, each of the copies would 

 no doubt differ more and more from the original, and 

 yet in the very last, by the help of memory or sym- 

 pathetic genius, there might be some beauty not to 

 be found in any of the others, recalling the hand of 

 the great master; while it is true, that if the sketch 

 were something exceedingly simple, the fiftieth copy, 

 and all the intermediate ones, might be almost exactly 

 like the original ; and so in nature, exceedingly simple 

 organisms are seemingly reproduced for almost endless 

 generations with no change, or scarcely any. 



If it be true that all living creatures on this earth 

 spring from a very few, extremely simple, original 

 germs of life, we have to explain how it is that now 

 there is an enormous variety of highly organised crea- 

 tures, and at the same time some of extreme simplicity. 

 For, if the simplest forms are permanent, how can the 

 more complex be derived from them ? On the other 

 hand, if the simplest forms vary, how is it that we 

 find, as we do, the very earliest known form of life 



