422 THE EVOLUTION OP LIFE. 



tions extended, this being would probably infer that no 

 changes of structure were taking place, or had taken place; 

 and that from the outset each man and woman had pos- 

 sessed all the characters then visible — had been originally 

 formed with them. The application is obvious. A 



human life is ephemeral compared with the life of a species; 

 and even the period over which the records of all human 

 lives extend, is ephemeral compared with the life of a 

 species. There is thus a parallel contrast between the im- 

 mensely-long series of changes which have occurred during 

 the life of a species, and that small portion of the series open 

 to our view. And there is no reason to suppose that the first 

 conclusion drawn by mankind from this small part of the 

 series visible to them, is any nearer the truth than would be 

 the conclusion of the supposed ephemeral being respecting 

 men and women. 



This analogy, suggesting as it does how the hypothesis of 

 special creations is merely a formula for our ignorance, raises 

 the question — What reason have we to assume special crea- 

 tions of species but not of individuals; unless it be that in 

 the case of individuals we directly know the process to be 

 otherwise, but in the case of species do not directly know it 

 to be otherwise? Have we any ground for concluding that 

 species were specially created, except the ground that we 

 have no immediate knowledge of their origin? And does 

 our ignorance of the manner in which they arose warrant us 

 in asserting that they arose by special creation? 



Another question is suggested by this analogy. Those 

 who, in the absence of immediate evidence of the way in 

 which species arose, assert that they arose not in a natural 

 way allied to that in which individuals arise, but in a super- 

 natural wa}^, think that by this supposition they honour the 

 Unknown Cause of things; and they oppose any antagonist 

 doctrine as amounting to an exclusion of divine power from 

 the world. But if divine power is demonstrated by the 

 separate creation of each species, would it not have been still 



