A House of Cards. 85 



a tissue of conjectures such as this to be ac- 

 cepted as if it possessed any scientific authority. 

 The branchiae are " now utterly lost ; " that is, 

 they are non-existent, except to the " imagina- 

 tion," to which " it is conceivable " that they 

 might once have been otherwise. That " ancient 

 mariner," the primeval ancestor of the human 

 race, was "an ancient prototype of which we 

 know nothing." And yet, strange to say, we 

 do know this : that he was " furnished with a 

 floating apparatus or swim-bladder." Som-e 

 thing " might have been " made of the missing 

 branchiae " for some quite distinct purpose ; " 

 for this, although not actual is at least "con- 

 ceivable." Nay, it almost emerges from the 

 realm of the ideal when we are to be shown the 

 modus operand^ " in the same manner as " as 

 what ? As in some other instance of which we 

 have tangible proof ? No, not that : but only as 

 in some other instance where " it is probable," 

 or at least supposable, that "organs which at 

 a very ancient period " may or may not have 

 existed to serve a given end, would be of great 

 service to this theory if only it could be shown 

 first, that they did exist, and then that they 

 ceased to exist, by having been " actually con- 

 verted " into other organs to serve another and 

 a very different end. 



