STUDIES IN ANIMAL LIFE. 123 



that the question of the origin of species is at pres- 

 ent incapable of a positive answer ; of the two hy- 

 potheses, that of development seems the more har- 

 monious with our knowledge; but it is no more 

 than an hypothesis, and will probably forever re- 

 main one. Now an hypothesis, although indispens- 

 able as a provisional mode of grouping together 

 facts, and giving them some sort of explanation, is, 

 after all, only a guess, and it may be absurdly wide 

 of the truth. In Natural History, as in all other 

 departments of speculative ingenuity, there have 

 been a goodly number of outrageously extravagant 

 hypotheses gravely propounded and credulously 

 accepted. Men prefer an absurd guess to a blank ; 

 they would rather have 'a false opinion than no 

 opinion ; and one of the last developments of phil- 

 osophic culture is the power of abstaining from 

 forming an opinion where the necessary data are 

 absent. 



If you wish to see how easily hypotheses are 

 formed and accepted, you need only turn over the 

 history of any science. If you want a laugh at 

 credulity, read a chapter of Pliny's Natural History. 

 Pliny is a classic, and was for centuries an author- 

 ity ; but, looked at with impartial eyes, he appears 

 the veriest " old woman" that ever wrote in a beau- 

 tiful style. He was a mere bookworm, without a 

 particle of scientific insight. His was not an age 

 when men had much regard to evidence ; but to 

 him the suspicion never seems to have occurred 



