TEE ORIGIN OF SPECIES. H 



the principal editor, whose wide observation and pro- 

 found knowledge of various departments of natural 

 history, as well as of geology, particularly qualify him 

 for the task. But he has been obliged to lay aside 

 his pen, and to seek in distant lands the entire repose 

 from scientific labor so essential to the restoration of 

 his health— a consummation devoutly to be wished, 

 and confidently to be expected. Interested as Mr. 

 Dana would be in this volume, he could not be ex- 

 pected to accept its doctrine. Yiews so idealistic as 

 those upon which his " Thoughts upon Species " ^ are 

 grounded, will not harmonize readily with a doctrine 

 so thoroughly naturalistic as that of Mr. Darwin. 

 Though it is just possible that one who regards the 

 kinds of elementary matter, such as oxygen and hy- 

 drogen, and the definite compounds of these ele- 

 mentary matters, and their compounds again, in the 

 mineral kingdom, as constituting species, in the same 

 sense, fundamentally, as that of animal and vegetable 

 species, might admit an evolution of one species from 

 another in the latter as well as the former case. 



Between the doctrines of this volume and those of 

 the other great naturalist whose name adorns the title- 

 page of this journal [Mr. Agassiz], the widest diver- 

 gence appears. It is interesting to contrast the two, 

 and, indeed, is necessary to our purpose ; for this con- 

 trast brings out most prominently, and sets in strongest 

 light and shade, the main features of the theory of the 

 origination of species by means of l^atural Selection. 



The ordinary and generally-received view assumes 

 the independent, specific creation of each kind of plant 



* Article in this Journal, vol. xxiv., p. 305. 



