INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 



were dependent upon circumstances altogether exceptional probably 

 at (or following- upon) the very remote period when this great 

 Atlantic province was rent asunder. 



We have seen that there are strong reasons for believing that a 

 vast majority of the true insular modifications which now present 

 themselves have not been matured by any process of slow develop- 

 ment, which might be supposed to have operated imperceptibly, and 

 to be acting still but, on the contrary, that they have remained 

 unchanged through an immeasurable period, at the commencement of 

 which they were probably brought about in obedience to a combina- 

 tion of circumstances and conditions which are altogether unprece- 

 dented and exceptional. And this conclusion appears to be sup- 

 ported by the 1 fact that, whilst there is not the faintest trace, 

 amongst the existing forms, of anything like a law of gradual ad- 

 vancement, unmistakeable signs of deterioration are nevertheless 

 conspicuous everywhere : or, in other words, the departures (when- 

 soever they may have occurred) from their respective types, nearly 

 always seem to be of a retrograde character, and therefore in pre- 

 cisely the opposite direction to what would be required by any 

 theory of general progressive tendencies. In nearly every instance 

 (and there are plenty of them) where two forms are almost identical 

 with each other except as regards size, the one being monstrous and 

 the other comparatively diminutive, it is the larger state which is 

 the scarcer and more typical; and so decidedly is this sometimes 

 expressed that it is difficult to avoid the suspicion that the latter 



from being abnormal ; and all experience shows us that it is the tendency of what 

 is irregular to die out, and to revert to what is typical (wherein resides the true 

 maximum, the beau ideal, of every type). So that if strength and full muscular 

 development are to be the vouchers for ultimate success, the " naturally selected" 

 race would certainly be the most normal <3ne, and not the most aberrant. I 

 believe that this must be true, in a broad and general sense, if the principle of 

 " natural selection " can be supposed to enter permanently, and incessantly, into 

 the great scheme of nature. But for my own part I can see nothing to warrant 

 that hypothesis, even whilst admitting (as I have done elsewhere, and often) 

 that to a very limited extent there appears no reason, but quite the reverse, why 

 some such process (call it what we please) may not have been silently at work 

 even if only at particular epochs, and in special regions ; for if eccentricities of 

 structure can with difficulty be made to move on in one undeviating path by 

 the unwearied skill, and forethought, of an active, living intelligence, it seems 

 preposterous to suppose that an imaginary agency which nobody has yet defined 

 can both exaggerate and stereotype them. Moreover mere utilitarianism could 

 not be made to fulfil more than one of the many final causes of Creation 

 amongst which stand preeminently Beauty (in its widest sense, and as the uni- 

 versal index, everywhere expressed, of the existence of a Master-Mind), and the 

 fact, strangely ignored, of universal enjoyment for all created beings. That " might 

 is right" may satisfy the requirements of " natural selection ;" but, happily for 

 the world, a more comprehensive, and merciful, law prevails. 



