412 THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES 



been specially modified in a greater or less degree in relation to 

 their habits of life, with their modifications inherited at a cor- 

 responding early age. On these same principles, and bearing in 

 mind that when organs are reduced in size, either from 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 inheritance — the occurrence of 

 rudimentary organs might even have been anticipated. The im- 

 portance of embryological characters and of rudimentary organs 

 in classification is intelligible, on the view that a natural arrange- 

 ment must be genealogical. 



Finally, the several classes of facts which have been considered 

 in this chapter, seem to me to proclaim so plainly, that the in- 

 numerable 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 hesitation adopt this view, even 

 if it were unsupported by other facts or arguments. 



