et hnbecillitate Darwiniana. 3 1 



possibly have arisen by means of ' Natural 

 Selection,' his theory was out of court, he 

 seemed constitutionally incapable of com- 

 prehending, what the slightest meditation 

 on mutually implicated organs ought to 

 have taught him. 



His theory is palpably impossible, in it- 

 self. Yet passing by this, ask him for evi- 

 dence, and what does he do ? He replies by 

 I. conjuring up a long line of fictitious beings 

 that could never have existed, covering this 

 absurdity by a euphemism, ' the imperfection 

 * of the geological record ' : and II. by point- 

 ing to the results of artificial selection. He 

 supports impossibility by imagination and 

 ignoratio elenchi : by facts that are either 

 fictitious or irrelevant. The breeder, as Dar- 

 win knew better than any one the marvel is, 

 that he could be so blind to the significance 

 of his own facts the breeder could effect 

 absolutely nothing, could accumulate no 



