196 DESIRES INOPERATIVE. 



it was done. The boar, which originally differed little from 

 the other beasts of the forests, first obtained tusks, because 

 he conceived them to be useful weapons, and then, by an- 

 other process of reasoning, a thick shield-like shoulder, to 

 defend himself from the tusks of his fellows. The stag, 

 in like manner, formed to himself horns, at once sharp and 

 branched, for the different purposes of offence and defence. 

 Some animals obtained wings, others fins, and others swift- 

 ness of foot ; while the vegetables exerted themselves in 

 inventing various modes of concealing and defending their 

 seeds and honey. These are a few of many instances ad- 

 duced by Dr. Darwin, which are all objectionable, on his 

 own principles; as they require us to believe the various 

 propensities to have been the cause rather than the effect 

 of the difference of configuration. The fish did not be- 

 come a sub-natant animal by having received fins, as it must 

 have been an inhabitant of the water before it could have 

 felt the want of them ; and the hog must originally have had 

 propensities different from those of the sheep, or it would 

 not have wished, nor attempted, the formation of its snout. 



" Of all modes of reasoning that is the easiest which 

 contents itself with simple supposition ; but to this species 

 of argument no bounds can be fixed. It will prove as 

 readily that a single filament gave rise to the complicated 

 system of the universe, as that it gave rise to all the tribes 

 of animals and vegetables that inhabit our earth. 



" If we admit the supposed capacity of producing organs 

 by the mere feeling of a want, man must have greatly de- 

 generated, or been originally inferior, in power. He may 

 wish for wings, as the other bipeds are supposed to have 

 done with success ; but a century of wishes will not render 

 him abler to take flight. It is not, however, to man, that 

 the observation must be confined. No improvements of 

 form have been observed in the other animals since the first 

 dawnings of zoology ; and we must, therefore, believe them 

 to have lost the power of production, rather than to have 

 attained all the objects of their desire. If we may be 

 allowed to judge from their situation, the hare has still in 

 the chase the same reason as the birds of old to wish for 

 wings, and the dove for greater swiftness of flight to escape 

 from the pursuing hawk ; yet the scale of inferiority still 

 subsists ; and such is the order of nature, that the strength 

 of all is supported by the weakness of all." * 



* Brown's Observ. on Zoonomia, p. 264 267. See also remarks by Pro- 

 fessor Agassiz in Edinb. New Phil. Journ. for July 1846, p. 31. 



