166 THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES 



slight differences in their vertebrae, nasal passages, and 

 one or two other points. The guinea-pig has teeth which 

 are shed before it is born, and hence can never subserve th 

 masticatory purpose for which they seem contrived, and, 

 in like manner, the female dugong has tusks which never 

 cut the gum. All the members of the same great group run 

 through similar conditions in their development, and all 

 their parts, in the adult state, are arranged according to 

 the same plan. Man is more like a gorilla than a gorilla 

 is like a lemur. Such are a few, taken at random, among 

 the multitudes of similar facts which modern research has 

 established ; but when the student seeks for an explanation 

 of them from the supporters of the received hypothesis 

 of the origin of species, the reply he receives is, in substance, 

 of Oriental simplicity and brevity " Mashallah I it so 

 pleases God 1 " There are different species on opposite 

 sides of the isthmus of Panama, because they were created 

 different on the two sides. The pliocene mammals are 

 like the existing ones, because such was the plan of creation ; 

 and we find rudimental organs and similarity of plan, 

 because it has pleased the Creator to set before Himself a 

 " divine exemplar or archetype," and to copy it in His 

 works ; and somewhat ill, those who hold this view imply, 

 in some of them. That such verbal hocus-pocus should 

 be received as science will one day be regarded as evidence 

 of the low state of intelligence in the nineteenth century, 

 just as we amuse ourselves with the phraseology about 

 Nature's abhorrence of a vacuum, wherewith Torricelli's 

 compatriots were satisfied to explain the rise of water in a 

 pump. And be it recollected that this sort of satisfaction 

 works not only negative but positive ill, by discouraging 

 inquiry, and so depriving man of the usufruct of one of 

 the most fertile fields of his great patrimony, Nature. 



The objections to the doctrine of the origin of species by 

 special creation which have been detailed, must have 

 occurred, with more or less force, to the mind of every 

 one who has seriously and independently considered the 

 subject. It is therefore no wonder that, from time to 

 time, this hypothesis should have been met by counter 

 hypotheses, all as well, and some better, founded than itself ; 

 and it is curious to remark that the inventors of the opposing 

 views seem to have been led into them as much by their 

 knowledge of geology, as by their acquaintance with biology. 

 In fact, when the mind has once admitted the conception of 





