CONCLUSION 311 



Hereafter we shall be compelled to acknowledge that 

 the only distinction between species and well-marked 

 varieties is, that the latter are known, or believed, to 

 be connected at the present day by intermediate grada- 

 tions, whereas species were formerly thus connected. 

 Hence, without rejecting the consideration of the present 

 existence of intermediate gradations between any two 

 forms, we shall be led to weigh more carefully and to 

 value higher the actual amount of difference between 

 them. It is quite possible that forms now generally 

 acknowledged to be merely varieties may hereafter be 

 thought worthy of specific names; and in this case scien- 

 tific and common language will come into accordance. 

 In short, we shall have to treat species in the same 

 manner as those naturalists treat genera wbo admit that 

 genera are merely artificial combinations made for con- 

 venience. This may not be a cheering prospect; but 

 we shall at least be freed from the vain search for the 

 undiscovered and undiscoverable essence of the term 

 species. 



The other and more general departments of natural 

 history will rise greatly in interest. The terms used by 

 naturalists, of affinity, relationship, community of type, 

 paternity, morphology, adaptive characters, rudimentary 

 and aborted organs, etc., will cease to be metaphorical, 

 and will have a plain signification. When we no longer f 

 look at an organic being as a savage looks at a ship, as 

 something wholly beyond his comprehension; when we 

 regard every production of nature as one which has had 

 a long history; when we contemplate every complex 

 structure and instinct as the summing up of many con- 

 trivances, each useful to the possessor, in the same way \ 



