S04 THE ORIOIN OF SPECIES 



on the far higher problem of the essence or origin of 

 life. Who can explain what is the essence of the attrac- 

 tion of gravity ? No one now objects to following out 

 the results consequent on tiiis unknown element of 

 attraction; notwithstanding that Leibnitz formerly accused 

 ISfewton of introducing "occult qualities and miracles into 

 philosophy." 



[" I see no good reason why the views given in this 

 volume should shock the religious feelings of any one. 

 It is satisfactory, as showing how transient such impres- 

 sions are, to remember that the greatest discovery ever 

 made by man, namely, the law of the attraction of 

 gravity, was also attacked by Leibnitz, "as subversive 

 of natural, and inferentially of revealed, religion." A 

 celebrated author and divine has written to me that "_he 

 has gradually learned to see that it is just as noble a 

 conceptiojL -of the Deity to believe that He created a few 

 ori ginal forms capab le _of selfdevglogmsnt into other and 

 needful forms, as to believe that He required a fresh act 



of creation to supply the voids caused by the action of 

 HisJaws." "' ~^^ "~ 



Why, it may be asked, until recently did nearly all 

 the most eminent living naturalists and geologists disbe- 

 lieve in the mutability of species? It cannot be asserted 

 that organic beings in a state of nature are subject to no 

 variation; it cannot be proved that the amount of varia- 

 tion in the course of long ages is a limited quantity; no 

 clear distinction has been, or can be, drawn between 

 species and well-marked varieties. It cannot be main- 

 tained that species when intercrossed are invariably 

 sterile, and varieties invariably fertile; or that sterility 

 is a special endowment and sign of creation. The belief 



