TEE GENESIS OF SPECIES. 



CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



The ProMom of tlio Ocnpsls of Ppoclos stntcd. — Nnturo of its Prohahle Rolntlon. — Tra- 

 portnnce of the Question. — Position hero defended. — Statement of the Darwinian 

 Tnr.onT. — Its Applicahility to Details of Oeogrnphicnl Distribution; to Rudimentary 

 Structures; to Iloitiolopy ; to Mimicry, etc. — Consequent Utility of the Thcorj'.— 

 Its Wide Acceptance. — Ileasons for this, other than, and In Addition to, its Scicnttflo 

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

 and OcJiuin Antitheologicum. — The Antagonism supposed by many to exist be- 

 tween It and Tlieology neither necessary nor universal. — Christian Authorities in 

 flivor of Kvolutlon. — iMr. Darwin's "Animals and Plimts under Domostication." — 

 Dlfllcultics 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 



