THE GENESIS OF SPECIES. 



CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



The Problem of the Genesis of Species stated. Nature of its Probable Solution. Im- 

 portance of the Question. Position here defended. Statement of the DARWINIAX 

 THEORY. Its Applicability to Details of Geographical Distribution ; to Rudimentary 

 Structures ; to Homology ; to Mimicry, etc. Consequent Utility of the Theory. 

 Its Wide Acceptance. Eeasons for this, other than, and in Addition to, its Scientific 

 Value. Its Simplicity. Its Bearing on Religious Questions. Odium Theologicum 

 and Odium AntitJwologicum. The Antagonism supposed by many to exist be- 

 tween it and Theology neither necessary nor universal. Christian Authorities in 

 favor of Evolution. Mr. Darwin's "Animals and Plants under Domestication.''' 

 Difficulties of the Darwinian Theory enumerated. 



THE great problem which has so long exercised the 

 minds of naturalists, namely, that concerning the origin 

 of different kinds of animals and plants, seems at last to 

 be fairly on the road to receive perhaps at no very dis- 

 tant future as satisfactory a solution as it can well have. 



But the problem presents peculiar difficulties. The 

 birth of a " species " has often been compared with that of 

 an " individual." The origin, however, of even an individ- 

 ual animal or plant (that which determines an embryo to 

 evolve itself as, e. g., a spider rather than a beetle, a rose- 

 plant rather than a pear) is shrouded in obscurity. A fortiori 

 must this be the case with the origin of a " species." 



Moreover, the analogy between a "species" and an 



