DARWIN AND HIS REVIEWERS. 151 



from such a cell, or from some simple animal, existing 

 ages before there were any dogs ? 



Again, suppose we have two well-known and ap- 

 parently most decidedly different animals or plants, A 

 and D, both presenting, in their structure and in their 

 adaptations to the conditions of existence, as valid and 

 clear evidence of design as any animal or plant ever 

 presented : suppose we have now discovered two inter- 

 mediate species, B and C, which make up a series with 

 equable differences from A to D. Is the proof of 

 design or final cause in A and D, whatever it amount- 

 ed to, at all weakened by the discovery of the inter- 

 mediate forms ? Rather does not the proof extend to 

 the intermediate species, and go to show that all four 

 were equally designed ? Suppose, now, the number 

 of intermediate forms to be much increased, and there- 

 fore the gradations to be closer yet as close as those 

 between the various sorts of dogs, or races of men, or 

 of horned cattle : would the evidence of design, as 

 shown in the structure of any of the members of the 

 series, be any weaker than it was in the case of A and 

 D ? Whoever contends that it would be, should like- 

 wise maintain that the origination of individuals by 

 generation is incompatible with design, or an impos- 

 sibility in Nature. We might all have confidently 

 thought the latter, antecedently to experience of the 

 fact of reproduction. Let our experience teach us 

 wisdom. 



These illustrations make it clear that the evidence 

 of design from structure and adaptation is furnished 

 complete by the individual animal or plant itself, and 

 that our knowledge or our ignorance of the history of 



