DARWIN 317 



parative anatom3% osteology, and palaeontology 

 brought within his view series of animal struc- 

 tures in all stages of usefulness, and especially 

 those which were transitory or vestigial in exist- 

 ing species and functional or well-developed in 

 extinct species. Thus in his essay on The Nature 

 of Limbs, in 1849, he wrote (p. 86) : "The Arche- 

 typal idea was manifested . . . long prior to the 

 existence of those animal species that actually 

 exemplify it." In the same work we find the fol- 

 lowing passage: "To what natural laws or sec- 

 ondary causes the orderly succession and pro- 

 gression of such organic phenomena may have 

 been committed we as yet are ignorant." This 

 was a revival of the Aristotelian concept of 

 *form' and 'matter.' Again, in 1858, in his ad- 

 dress before the British Association, he spoke of 

 the axiom "o/ the continuous operation of crea- 

 tive power, or ordained becoming of living 

 things'' — ^indicating that his belief in the discov- 

 ery of natural law was limited by his belief in 

 the continuous operation of a supernatural law. 

 He, however, cited the Apteryx, a wingless bird 

 of New Zealand, with its excessively degenerate 

 wings, as shaking our confidence in the theory of 

 Special Creation. 



It thus appears that, prior to the publication 

 of Darwin's work, Owen was an evolutionist to 

 a limited degree, somewhat in the manner of 



