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of the ocean before he was quite fitted for it. he might find that 

 natural selection had led him into a somewhat awkward mistake, not 

 much to his benefit ; or if, on the other hand, he had to wait above 

 till he was fitted to go down below, he would fare but badly and on 

 very short commons among the' mountains and forests. A demi-semi- 

 bear-cum- whale would be perhaps rather an " odd fish " to look at. but 

 then, you see, it is quite as easy for you to swallow my story of the 

 bear as it is for the bear to swallow the flies, so you ought to be very 

 much obliged to me for telling you so very pretty a fairy tale. 



I believe that if an animal or bird has more than one habit, 

 that is a proof that it is in a transition state. AVhy not believe 

 in a transmigration of bodies as well as in a transmigration of souls V 



I believe, therefore, that as a dog sometimes eats grass, it shows 

 clearly that in due time he will turn into an ox : and just in the 

 same way as the reindeer sometimes devours the hamster, so is he sure 

 to turn into one or other of the carnivora. I can't exactly at present 

 say which, but if you wait long enough you will see it to be as I say 

 no doubt about it. 



I believe that when the buffalo is floating under the water, with 

 only his mouth out, for some hours at a time, natural selection is li at 

 play," and has her eye upon him with a view to his becoming this, 

 that, or the other, as the case may be. 



I believe that Shakespeare must have been of my way of thinking, 

 for he gives his well-known character in the llidtu miner Night's Dream 

 an ass's head, who then naturally enough says. ' Methinks I have a 

 great desire for a pottle of hay : good hay, sweet hay. hath no fellow.'' 

 So that you see when a man is turned into an ass, he will be sure to 

 like thistles in the end, and to bray like a donkey as he must be. 



I believe, " I see no difficulty in believing." anything at all that 

 comes into my head, and you must do the same, without expecting any 

 proof from me. 



I believe, it is with me a nine qua non, that ''in order that any 

 great amount of modification should in the course of time be produced, 

 it is necessary to believe that when a variety has once arisen, it ag-ain 

 varies and so onwards." That is to say. you must take all this on 

 credit; for I have no proof of it, and therefore can give you none. 

 You must take assertion for proof, a:ad is not that enough for any 

 one? It may be a novelty in a scientific enquiry, but with that you 

 have nothing to do. Leave it all to me. 



I believe that " many ancient forms of life have been utterly lost." 

 Therefore I must needs allow that they can never be found, and so 

 much the better for me, for then I can desire you to " readily believe 

 that the unknown progenitor of the vertebrata possessed many vertebras." 

 I cannot take upon me to say that he acquired them by natural 

 selection, for he must have had them all at once or not at all. I 

 cannot help allowing that the vertebra? began with a sort of rudimentary 

 one with a view to the future benefit of the animal, and though this 

 is the very thing which all my theory goes against, it even must be 

 so, but I hold to my theory for all that. 



I believe that ' every single organised being around us lives by a 

 struggle at some period of its life." " The merest trifle would often 

 give the victory to one organised being over another." ' If any one 

 species does not become modified and improved in a corresponding 

 degree with its competitor, it will soon become exterminated." It is 

 true that, as you may see in any wood where the trees if thickly 

 planted together try each to overtop the other for the sake of light 

 and air, no new species are produced, but the survivors remain of the same 

 kind as before ; but I am ' of the same opinion still," and though facts 



