et Imbecillitate Darwiniana. 57 



geological record : in other words, his whole 

 theory of * Natural Selection/ which supposes 

 the possibility of an impossibility, infinitesi- 

 mal gradations between all the forms in 

 Nature past and present : his identification 

 of abrupt origination with miracle : all this 

 only proves to demonstration that neither 

 he himself nor his disciples know what 

 thinking means. Every new principle of 

 organisation in Nature must have come in 

 with a jump, and cannot have originated 

 in any other way. As, for example, to 

 revert to our former illustration ; the water- 

 defying apparatus of animals that live by 

 breathing air could not possibly have arisen 

 by degrees. This is so obvious that it is 

 difficult to understand how any one could 

 avoid perceiving it : but there are countless 

 cases of organisation, the commonest things 

 in Nature, to which Darwin never paid at- 

 tention. And really, it is almost to insult 



