166 • DARWmiANA, 



gories of thoiiglit, and not facts or things, liow does 

 tMs prevent the individuals, which are. material things, 

 from having varied in the course of time, so as to 

 exemplify the present almost innumerable categories 

 of thought, or embodiments of Divine thought in ma- 

 terial forms, or — viewed on the human side — in forms 

 marked with such orderly and graduated resemblances 

 and differences as to suggest to our minds the idea of 

 species, genera, orders, etc., and to our reason the in- 

 ference of a Divine Original ? We have no clear idea 

 how Mr. Agassiz intends to answer this question, in 

 saying that branches are founded upon diif erent plans 

 of structure, classes upon different mode of execution 

 of these plans, orders on different degrees of compli- 

 cation in the mode of execution, families upon diflerent 

 patterns of form, genera upon ultimate peculiarities 

 of structure, and species upon relations and propor- 

 tions. That is, we do not perceive how these several 

 " categories of thought " exclude the possibility or the 

 probability that the individuals which manifest or 

 suggest the thoughts had an ultimate community of 



origm. 



Moreover, Mr. Darwin might insinuate that the 

 particular pliilosophy of classification upon which this 

 whole argument reposes is as purely hypothetical and 

 as little accepted as is his own doctrine. If both are 

 pure hypotheses, it is hardly fair or satisfactory to ex- 

 tinguish the one by the other. If there is no real con- 

 tradiction between them, nothing is gained by the 

 attempt. 



As to the dilemma propounded, suppose we try it 

 upon that category of thought which we call chair. 



