COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



tertained as a scientific hypothesis so long as it 

 alleges no physical agencies competent to effect 

 the sudden jumps from one specific form to 

 another ; nor does the comparative paucity of 

 transitional forms in a fossil state afford any 

 reason for our adopting it. A brief considera- 

 tion will show us that the fact is entirely con- 

 sistent with the theory of progress by minute 

 variations. 



In the first place, let us note that in gen- 

 eral intermediate transitional forms must be the 

 soonest killed off in the struggle for existence ; 

 and that, especially, where two strains or va- 

 rieties become further differentiated into true 

 species, it is the extreme forms which multiply 

 at the expense of those which are intercalated 

 between them. Here, as on a former occasion, 

 our comprehension of the argument will be 

 facilitated by a reference to the analogous set 

 of phenomena which occur during the process 

 of linguistic differentiation. It is held by most 

 philologists that all languages in the tertiary or 

 amalgamative stage of development must have 

 previously existed in the secondary or aggluti- 

 native stage, — and, at a yet earlier period, in 

 the primary or juxtapositive stage, of which the 

 Chinese is a still living example. Against this 

 view M. Renan has urged the absence or pau- 

 city of transitional forms connecting one class 

 of languages with another. Now in answering 



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