PARENTAGE. 43 



Series of Rank, of Growth, of Time, and of Geograph- 

 ical Distribution all show that there is no such gradation 

 as transmutation implies, and that the connection be- 

 tween different kinds of living things is not a material 

 connection, but only an intellectual one, indicating the 

 plan of the Great Architect.* 



5. In all forms of life which have yet come under 

 human observation, the origin has not been by transmu- 

 tation, but by parental derivation. Animals and vege- 

 tables all come from parents of similar organization. If 

 ever transmutation was the law of origin, it has been 

 changed, and the law of parentage is now supreme. But 

 a change of law is inconsistent with the theory of evolu- 

 tion. Unless the law had been changed, species would 

 still originate by transmutation, if ever they had such 

 origin. Such transmutation has never been observed. 

 The Egyptian monuments prove that the animals of 

 earliest history remain unchanged, and Agassiz has 

 shown from the coral reefs in Florida that the animals 

 of the Gulf of Mexico remain the same as when these 

 deposits began. Even the varieties which man secures 

 by " artificial selection " revert to the original type when 

 the modifying circumstances are removed. Transmuta- 

 tion has not a single fact to prove it. At best it is but 

 a theory, and one which all the facts known render most 

 improbable. 



6. The geological evidence shows the entire absence 

 of intermediate varieties between species, which inter- 

 mediate forms Mr. Darwin himself admits to be neces- 

 sary to establish his theory of natural selection. He 



* Agassiz, " Methods of Study in Natural History " 



