94 Remarks on the Theories of PT. n. 



established, if established at all, by the evidence of 

 facts. Do Mr. Darwin's facts prove his theory? 

 Let us recollect for a moment the immense and com- 

 plicated variety of the conditions of Life upon this 

 Globe, and the wonderful adaptation of Life in its 

 different forms to such varying conditions : for 

 instance, aquatic and terrestrial life, where the con- 

 ditions are so dissimilar as to be absolutely incom- 

 patible with each other, and yet the organs of the 

 living inhabitants are so constituted as to be exactly 

 suited to each state. Let us look at the birds of the 

 air; the genius of man is fertile in mechanical 

 inventions, but he has never been able to construct 

 a machine by which he could fly ; yet the wings and 

 feathers of birds are mechanical contrivances, which 

 no human skill has ever enabled us to imitate. It 

 would be superfluous to multiply examples of all the 

 marvels of the animate and inanimate world which 

 surround us ; no one can better appreciate them than 

 Mr. Darwin, whose peculiar studies have constantly 

 led him to examine them. He must therefore have at 

 any rate satisfied his own mind of the adequacy of his 

 two principles of Natural Selection and Sexual Selec- 

 tion to account for all the phenomena which he of all 

 men might be supposed least likely to undervalue. 



