DARWIN AND THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES 261 



his theory will derive 110 benefit from the few facts which may 

 be allowed to be consistent .with its truth. 



The peculiarities of geographical distribution seem very 

 difficult of explanation on any theory. Darwin calls in alter- 

 nately winds, tides, birds, beasts, all animated nature, as the 

 diffusers of species, and then a good many of the same agencies 

 as impenetrable barriers. There are some impenetrable barriers 

 between the Galapagos Islands, but not between New Zealand 

 and South America. Continents are created to join Australia 

 and the Cape of Good Hope, while a sea as broad as the British 

 Channel is elsewhere a valid line of demarcation. With these 

 facilities of hypothesis there seems to be no particular reason 

 why many theories should not be true. However an animal 

 may have been produced, it must have been produced some- 

 where, and it must either have spread very widely, or not have 

 spread, and Darwin can give good reasons for both results. If 

 produced according to any law at all, it would seem probable 

 that groups of similar animals would be produced in given 

 places. Or we might suppose that all animals having been 

 created anywhere or everywhere, those have been extinguished 

 which were not suited to such climate ; nor would it be an 

 answer to say that the climate, for instance, of Australia, is less 

 suitable now to marsupials than to other animals introduced 

 from Europe, because we may suppose that this was not so when 

 the race began ; but in truth it is hard to believe any of the 

 suppositions, nor can we just now invent any better ; and this 

 peculiarity of distribution, namely, that all the products of a 

 given continent have a kind of family resemblance, is the sole 

 argument brought forward by Darwin which seems to us to lend 

 any countenance to the theory of a common origin and the 

 transmutation of species. 



Our main arguments are now completed. Something might 

 be said as to the alleged imperfection of the geological records. 

 It is certain that, when compared with the total number of 

 animals which have lived, they must be very imperfect ; but 

 still we observe that of many species of beings thousands and 

 even millions of specimens have been preserved. If Darwin's 

 theory be true, the number of varieties differing one from another 

 a very little must have been indefinitely great, so great indeed 



