53 Specific Character. [Jan., 



the rhinoceros or hippopotamus on the contrary have none of the ap- 

 titude of the elephant. The positive character of the first is as 

 important specifically as the negative of the latter. If it is sup- 

 posed that by gradation species run into each in their varieties, 

 the view is erroneous. If it is meant that there is a system, that 

 species occupy a position which is positively assigned them in 

 that system that there are grades of being, some high, some low, 

 it is undoubtedly true. 



The position which a species holds is positive and arbitrary; 

 they occupy a shelf or platform which is fixed, and this neither 

 inclines downward nor upward, its position is parallel, and all 

 species are placed in the same relations. The shelf is nearer 

 some than it is to others. The resemblances are less remote, and 

 the affinities approximate some and separate others. This ar- 

 angement gives us families and groups. But still not only the 

 species, but the groups are kept apart, and we may take them 

 singly or collectively, and we shall never be able to discover a co- 

 alescence of species. 



While then the species are kept strictly apart, each upon its 

 own platform, the advance towards a higher organization 

 is by species, yet it is not by the advance of the individuals of 

 a species. Species in their individual capacity do not advance 

 towards a higher or lower species, but advanced species are 

 created. The spaces which intervene between the platforms 

 Avhich constitute the station they occupy is greater in some cases 

 than others. This is all. 



Another important view which may be taken of species is, the 

 mode in which they sometimes break up into groups. This is 

 well illustrated in the dog. The groups or varieties constitute 

 many well-marked families which are capable of maintaining 

 their identities, as if they were real species, and yet the specific 

 marks of the dog remain unadulterated in each. The groups 

 which are formed by the breaking up of this species represent in 

 miniature the entire class to which they belong, without a coales- 

 cence of any one group with either of the species in which there 

 is a relationship. While then a species in some instances pos- 

 sesses a constitutional ability to change, it is evident those chan- 

 ges never destroy specific marks, and the change itself is governed 

 by a law which, while it marks groups with characters analagous 

 to the specific, still, not one group, or individual of a group is 

 merged in any of the near or remote species. The author of 

 the Vestiges of Creation has attempted to build up a system, the 

 foundation of which is laid upon the constitutional ability in 

 some species to change, or produce deviations within a certain 

 range from the parent type. A hasty and superficial view may 

 favor his system. When however these deviations are carefully 



