498 SUMMARY 



disuse or through natural selection, it will generally be at 

 that period of life when the being has to provide for its own 

 wants, and bearing in mind how strong is the force of in- 

 heritance — the occurrence of rudimentary organs might even 

 have been anticipated. The importance of embryological 

 characters and of rudimentary organs in classification is 

 intelligible, on the view that a natural arrangement must be 

 genealogical. 



Finally, the several classes of facts which have been con- 

 sidered in this chapter, seem to me to proclaim so plainly, 

 that the innumerable species, genera and families, with which 

 this world is peopled, are all descended, each within its own 

 class or group, from common parents, and have all been 

 modified in the course of descent, that I should without hesi- 

 tation adopt this view, even if it were unsupported by other; 

 facts or arguments. 



