78 LIFE AND OKGANISATIOX. 



recorded in the rocks below us; of which Man himself, 

 highest and foremost in the series of types, appears to our 

 present view as the consummation. But we have no right, 

 on this latter point, to dogmatise as to that futurity of time 

 and change which goes so far beyond all human knowledge 

 or comprehension. 



From the system of types, however, the advocate for 

 transmutation of species can draw no fresh argument for his 

 doctrine. It is still a series, more or less complete in its 

 parts, of which each member or species, in past as well as 

 present periods, has its denned and specific characters ; and 

 continues to have them as long as its existence cornes within 

 our view. The type, whether general or particular, repre- 

 sents to us certain common outlines (ideas we are tempted 

 to call them) in the scheme of creation, to which these 

 separate members belong as individual parts. Were there 

 anything like actual transmutation amongst them, we might 

 expect to have our catalogues crowded with instances of this 

 in every stage and aspect of its progress, or even to have 

 evidence of it under our own eyes. 



This brings us to what is a main argument in the matter ; 

 viz., the variations which actually occur in living species, 

 and which strongly tend to become hereditary, if the causes 

 of variation be continued. Examples to this effect are so 

 numerous and familiar that it is needless to cite them in 

 detail. They occur most strikingly among animals domesti- 

 cated by man, or artificially bred for his uses or pleasures. 

 But they are produced also by variations of climate, food, 

 and other physical conditions tending to perpetuate certain 

 forms at the expense of others ; sometimes also by those 

 more mysterious influences of generation, of which we can 

 say little more than that they exist ; and, existing, must be 

 the source of numerous facts and anomalies, to which neither 

 reason nor research furnishes any other clue. 



