DARWIN AND THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES 257 



Nor is it surprising that newly discovered species and varie- 

 ties should almost invariably occupy an intermediate position 

 between some already known, since the number of varieties of 

 one species, or the number of possible species, can only be in- 

 definitely increased by admitting varieties or species possessing 

 indefinitely small differences one from another. 



We observe that these peculiarities require no theory of 

 transmutation, but only that the combination of the parts, 

 however effected, should have been made in accordance with 

 some law, as we have every reason to expect they would be. 



In illustration of this conclusion, cases of difficult classifica- 

 tion are pointed out containing nothing analogous to reproduc- 

 tion, and where no struggle for life occurs. 



Observed Facts supposed to support Darwin s Views. The 

 chief arguments used to establish the theory rest on conjecture. 

 Beasts may have varied ; variations may have accumulated ; 

 they may have become permanent ; continents may have arisen 

 or sunk, and seas and winds been so arranged as to dispose of 

 animals just as we find them, now spreading a race wildly, now 

 confining it to one Galapagos island. There may be records of 

 infinitely more animals than we know of in geological forma- 

 tions yet unexplored. Myriads of species differing little from 

 those we know to have been preserved, may actually not have 

 been preserved at all. There may have been an inhabited world 

 for ages before the earliest known geological strata. The world 

 may indeed have been inhabited for an indefinite time ; even 

 the geological observations may perhaps give a most insufficient 

 idea of the enormous times which separated one formation from 

 another : the peculiarities of hybrids may result from accidental 

 differences between the parents, not from what have been called 

 specific differences. 



We are asked to believe all these maybe's happening on an 

 enormous scale, in order that we may believe the final Dar- 

 winian ' maybe,' as to the origin of species. The general form 

 of his argument is as follows : All these things may have been, 

 therefore my theory is possible, and since my theory is a pos- 

 sible one, all those hypotheses which it requires are rendered 



VOL. i. s 



