42 



one of a shipwrecked crew proved himself a good swimmer and 

 1 his life, all his children would be good swimmers too, and 

 turn into big or little fishes. A child can see that ! 



I believe that the penguin and the ant, the hog and the swallow, 

 the camel and the kingfisher, the porpoise and the bat are, one 

 and all, as well as ourselves, u joined together by family ties," 

 though from what common ancestor they spring is not certain. 

 Certain, however, it is that something of the sort took place, me 

 jndice. I defy you to overturn my self-complacency. 



I believe that our having all this mixed blood in our veins, may 

 perhaps account for the different dispositions we see in ourselves, 

 our friends, and relations ; who can tell ? I grant you that it 

 may be rather hard to prove ; but that is no concern of mine. 

 All I have to do is to propound theories, and the more outrageous 

 tin- better for me and my book. Verba nonjacta is my motto, 

 and there cannot be a better for me. 



I believe that an u ideal similarity," leading to an ancestor of 

 which we know nothing, is, or ought to be, very convincing. It 

 all comes to the same in the end. 



I believe this, and if you reply that " a man's a man for a* 

 that," I don't hold with you : That's all. 



I Relieve, " I see no good reason to doubt," that when " males 

 and females of any animal differ in structure, colour, or ornament," 

 the admiration of the females for such has produced the 

 apparently different species we see. I admit that though I have 

 elsewhere stated that Natural Selection always works for some 

 useful end, there is no useful end in all this, except in a " forced 

 sense," but I have set forth the theory, and by it I mean to stand 

 or fall. We shall see. Yes, we shall see what we shall see. 



I believe all this, I say, although I have somewhere or other 

 slated that " Natural Selection cares nothing for appearances," 

 ami if it were that many "structures have been created for 

 beauty in of man or for mere variety, THIS DOCTRINE, 



II TRUE, WOULD BE ABSOLUTELY FATAL TO MY THEORY." 

 You may say that if this be not self-contradiction and self- 

 confutation, you do not know what is. Perhaps you do not, but 

 t allow me to decide. It's all I mean to give you in 

 the way of proof. 



