150 CLUES AND SUGGESTIONS CHAP. 



ised animal the Horse. That series of 

 forms, although then less continuous, was 

 noticed long before the days of Darwin. 

 It attracted the attention of Cuvier, and 

 I heard Owen lecture upon it as indica- 

 tive of the origin of the Horse two years 

 before the Origin of Species had been 

 published. The later more near approach 

 to completion in that series of American 

 fossils is said by Mr. Spencer to have 

 finally convinced Professor Huxley of 

 conclusions on which he had before 

 maintained a certain reserve. They are, 

 indeed, most significant, but I am not 

 sure that their significance has been well 

 interpreted. They do indeed seem to 

 indicate the development of a plan of 

 animal structure worked out, somehow, 

 through the processes of ordinary genera- 

 tion. But they do not indicate any 

 fortuity, or any confusion, or any blind 

 haphazard variations in all possible 



