DARWIN 111 



was not due to a mighty divine interference, was it 

 not conceivable that the origin also may not have 

 needed such? 



One more deduction, and the demon of know- 

 ledge had hold of the entire hand. May not this 

 natural extinction and natural new-birth have been 

 directly connected in many cases ? As a fact, 

 some of the species had been wholly extirpated. 

 But others had provided the living material of 

 the new arrivals ; they had been transformed into 

 these apparently new species. That was the 

 decisive deduction. It did away with the need 

 of any sudden creation. It merely made a claim 

 that was appalling to the Linnean principles : 

 namely, that species may change. In the course 

 of time and at a favourable spot one species may 

 be transformed into another. 



Another fairly obvious deduction could be made. 

 Who brought about the transformation ? Lyell 

 proved that, without any catastrophes, terrestrial 

 things are constantly changing — the water and the 

 land, the mountains and the valleys, and even the 

 climate. In this gradual change the environments 

 of living things were at length altered to such an 

 extent that they were bound to cause a change 

 in the organisms. However, different species 

 reacted in different ways. Some gradually died 

 out. Others adapted themselves to the new 

 conditions ; just as, in human affairs, one race 

 breaks down under changed conditions while 

 another rises to a higher and richer and new 

 stage on that very account. No creation ! Merely 



