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I believe all this. It " does not appear incredible" (to me), yet 

 as to how " the first steps in advance" came " out of the original 

 simplest structure, I can make no sufficient answer," and can only 

 say that " all speculation on the subject would be baseless and 

 useless." So that though I own that here we have no facts to 

 guide us, still, as I say it is "not incredible," what more can 

 you possibly want ? You must admit on trust all that I choose 

 to invent for you, while all the time I admit that it is quite 

 inexplicable/' no one ought to feel surprised at all this." Take 

 my word for it. 



I believe that the title I have given to my book, " On the 

 Origin of Species," is not a false one, though it tells nothing as 

 to the origin of my " Origin," where there could by no possibility 

 have been any selection, nothing to " select," nothing to select 

 from. The Universal includes the particular : that you can't 

 dispute. 



I believe that as we possess (viz., in my doctrine) only the 

 " last volume" of the "geological record" although the difficulties 

 of my notion are " inexplicable," I can make them " disappear." 

 No doubt I have to beg the whole question, but that is the only 

 sort of logic that I care to be guided by. I have furnished my 

 library from the land of dreams, and I much prefer it to the 

 volume of the " Testimony of the Rocks." The latter I own is 

 in existence, while no page of mine is to be found, except in my 

 own brain ; but "I am of the same opinion still." It's all one 

 to me. 



I believe that Geology giving us no traces of the existence of 

 infinitely numerous" gradations of extinct species is " the most 

 obvious of the many objections which may be urged against my 

 views," but what have I to do with that ! 



I believe that the remains of the horse and the tapir are found 

 in the same formation, but for all that I hold that there must have 

 been innumerable links between them, though not one of them 

 has ever been found. 



I believe that Geology tells us truly all about the large and the 

 small genera, but nothing about all the intermediate species 

 which must once have existed, because I choose to say so. You 



