II THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES 77 



no respect be intermediate between these species. 

 If any two species have arisen from a common 

 stock in the same way as the carrier and the 

 pouter, say, have arisen from the rock-pigeon, 

 then the common stock of these two species need 

 be no more intermediate between the two than 

 the rock-pigeon is between the carrier and 

 pouter. Clearly appreciate the force of this 

 analogy, and all the arguments against the origin 

 of species by selection, based on the absence of 

 transitional forms, fall to the ground. And Mr. 

 Darwin's position might, we think, have been 

 even stronger than it is if he had not embarrassed 

 himself with the aphorism, " Natura non facit 

 saltum," which turns up so often in his pages. 

 We believe, as we have said above, that Nature 

 does make jumps now and then, and a recognition 

 of the fact is of no small importance in disposing 

 of many minor objections to the doctrine of trans- 

 mutation. 



But we must pause. The discussion of Mr. 

 Darwin's arguments in detail would lead us far 

 beyond the limits within which we proposed, at 

 starting, to confine this article. Our object has 

 been attained if we have given an intelligible, 

 however brief, account of the established facts 

 connected with species, and of the relation of the 

 explanation of those facts offered by Mr. Darwin to 

 the theoretical views held by his predecessors and 

 his contemporaries, and, above all, to the require- 



