OBJECTIONS TO THE THEORY OF NATURAL SELECTION 207 



blances of all kinds can be accounted for, as we shall hereafter see, 

 by the progenitors of our existing species having varied after early 

 youth, and having transmitted their newly acquired characters to 

 their offspring, at a corresponding age. The embryo is thus left 

 almost unaffected, and serves as a record of the past condition of 

 the species. Hence it is that existing species during the early stages 

 of their development so often resemble ancient and extinct forms 

 belonging to the same class. On this view of the meaning of em- 

 bryological resemblances, and indeed on any view, it is incredible 

 that an animal should have undergone such momentous and abrupt 

 transformations as those above indicated, and yet should not 

 bear even a trace in its embryonic condition of any sudden modi- 

 fication, every detail in its structure being developed by insensibly 

 fine steps. 



He who believes that some ancient form was transformed sud- 

 denly through an internal force or tendency into, for instance, one 

 furnished with wings, will be almost compelled to assume, in op- 

 position to all analogy, that many individuals varied simultane- 

 ously. It cannot be denied that such abrupt and great changes of 

 structure are widely different from those which most species ap- 

 parently have undergone. He will further be compelled to believe 

 that many structures beautifully adapted to all the other parts of 

 the same creature, and to the surrounding conditions, have been 

 suddenly produced; and of such complex and wonderful coadapta- 

 tions, he will not be able to assign a shadow of an explanation. He 

 will be forced to admit that these great and sudden transformations 

 have left no trace of their action on the embryo. To admit all this 

 is, as it seems to me, to enter into the realms of miracle, and to 

 leave those of scitnce. 



