ORIGIN OF SPECIES. H 



need hardly be pointed out that the fact does nut in the 

 slightest; degree interfere with any cr>nelu>inn that M..IV be 

 arrived at, deductively, from t\\<-r OOOtidMBliool tha- 

 some time or other, abiogenesis mu ik. n p! 



If the hypothesis of evolution is true, livin: must 



have arisen from not-living matter ; for, by the hypothesis, 

 the condition of the globe was at one time such that li 

 matter could not have existed in it, 1 life bring entirely in- 

 compatible with the gaseous state. But, living naftter OM* 

 originated, there is no necessity for another origination, . 

 the hypothesis postulates the unlimited, though perhaps not 

 indefinite, modifiability of such matter. 



Of the causes which have led to the origination of living 

 matter, then, it may be said that we know absolutely 

 But postulating the existence of living mat i \ed\\ith 



that power of hereditary transmission, and with that teni- 

 to vary which is found in all such matter, Mr. Darwin has 

 shown good reasons for believing that the interaction between 

 living matter and surrounding conditions, which n >ul 

 the survival of the fittest, is sullicient to account for the 

 gradual evolution of plants and animals from their simplest 

 to their most complicated forms, and for the known phe- 

 nomena of Morphology, Physiology, and Distribution. 



Mr. Darwin has further endeavored i 



explanation of hereditary transmission by his hypothesis 

 of Pangenesis ; while he seeks for the principal, if not the 

 only cause of variation in the influence of changing c< 

 tions. 



It is on this point that the chief divergence exists among 

 those who accept the doctrine of evolution in its general 

 outlines. Three views may be taken of the causes of varia- 

 tion : 



a. In virtue of its molecular structure, the organism may 

 tend to vary. This variability may either be indefinit 

 may be limited to certain directions by intrin-i. oni 

 In the former case, the result of the struggle for . 

 would be the survival of the fittest among an inde 

 number of varieties; in the latter ease, it would bo the 

 survival of the fittest among a certain set of varieties, the 



'It makes no difference if we adopt Sir W. T IICHUS and 



suppose that the jrerms of livin-r things have been trar 

 from some other, seeing that there is :i> inu.-h n 

 stellar and planetary components of the universe arc or have been 

 that the earth has passed through this stage. 



