CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN. 373 



belief "that nature, in all the long ages during 

 which the world has existed, may have produced 

 the different kinds of plants and animals by 

 gradually enlarging one part and diminishing 

 another to suit the wants of each." Geoffrey 

 Saint-Hilaire, Goethe, Dr. Erasmus Darwin, the 

 grandfather of Charles, all believed that species 

 are descended from other species, and in various 

 ways improved. 



Some of the reasons for the belief in evolution 

 are so simply and clearly stated by Arabella B. 

 Buckley, in her " Short History of Natural Science," 

 that I quote her words : 



"All the Animals of each class are formed on the 

 same plan 



" Why should the animals of one class (such as 

 the vertebrate or back-boned class) be formed all 

 on one plan, even to the most minute bones ; so 

 that the wing of a bat, the front leg of a horse, the 

 hand of a man, and the flapper of a porpoise, are 

 all made of the same bones, which have either 

 grown together, or lengthened and spread apart, 

 according to the purpose they serve ? And, more 

 curious still, why should some animals have parts 

 which are of no use to them, but only seem to be 

 there because other animals of the same class also 

 have them? Thus the whale has teeth like the 

 other mammalia, but they never pierce through 

 the gum; and the boa-constrictor has the begin- 

 nings of hind legs, hidden under its skin, though 

 they never grow out. Here, again, it seems ex- 



