72 GLAUCUS ; OR, 



that for every extinct Dodo or Moa a new species 

 may be created, to keep up the equilibrium of the 

 whole. This is but a surmise : but it may be 

 wise, perhaps, just now, to confess boldly, even to 

 insist on, its possibility, lest the advocates of the 

 " Vestiges of Creation " theory should claim the 

 notion as making for them, and fancy, from our 

 unwillingness to allow it, that there would be 

 aught in it, if proved, contrary to Christianity. 



Let us, therefore, say boldly, that there has 

 been a " progress of species," and that there may 

 be again, in the true sense of that term : but say, 

 as boldly, that the Transmutation theory is not 

 one of a progress of species at all, which would be 

 a change in the idea of the species, taking place in 

 the Divine Mind, — in plain words, the creation 

 of a new species. "What the Transmutationists 

 really mean, if they would express themselves 

 clearly, or carefully analyze their own notions, is 

 a physical and actual change, not of species, but 

 of individuals, of already existing living beings 

 created according to one idea, into other living 

 beings created according to another idea. And of 

 this, in spite of the apparent change of species in 

 the marvellous metamorphoses of lower animals. 

 Nature has as yet given us no instance among 



