et Imbecillitate Darwiniana. 25 



air : the next instant they are again tightly 

 closed, and down he goes again. 



Now, consider this matter. How is it 

 POSSIBLE for such an organ as this nostril to 

 come into being gradually, little by little, 

 by the accumulation of increments ? Is it 

 not clear, certain, necessary, inevitable, un- 

 deniable, that to be efficient, to gain its 

 object, it must have arisen, not piecemeal, 

 but all at once, and abruptly? Is it not 

 mathematically evident, that slight succes- 

 sive increments could never have formed 

 this organ, for in incipient stages it would 

 have involved the instant death of its owner? 



The difficulty, for Darwin, is insuperable, 

 but no glimpse of it ever entered his head. 

 Whenever, for example, it was objected to 

 him, that any given organ, as, e.g., the eye, 

 could not have originated by * Natural Se- 

 lection,' his invariable answer was, to look 

 about in Nature for gradations in eyes : an 



