8 



butterfly, the whale and the ant, the toad and the swallow, the 

 hare and the tortoise, the crocodile and the lamb, the humming- 

 bird and the snake, the mole and the monkey, and then the man, 

 are all one species and only one. 



I believe this, although I see that while animals of the several 

 species described by naturalists breed solely together, and that 

 their offspring are prolific, in like manner, generation after 

 generation, any others which may exceptionally breed together 

 have no progeny, except in very rare cases, and that any they 

 may have leave no descendants, except still more rarely for 

 perhaps one further generation or so, and no more. 



I believe that all the various creatures on the earth have 

 sprung from a single parent, although I hold that each new 

 species has " supplanted and exterminated its original parent and 

 all the transitional varieties between its past and present status." 



I believe that the drooping of the ears in domestic animals is 

 due to the disuse of the muscles of the ear, from the animals not 

 being much alarmed by danger, although I see the tamed horse 

 with erect ears, and the wild hare and the rabbit with strikingly 

 drooping ears. 



I believe that the temporary variation of several races of any 

 one species of plant is a proof that permanent so-called species 

 are thus produced, although I see that the varieties if left for 

 many, or even a few, generations, in a poor soil would to a large 

 extent by degrees, and in the end wholly, revert to the form of 

 the wild aboriginal stock. 



I believe that I am using an able and sensible argument in 

 saying that the misletoe may metaphorically be said to struggle 

 with other fruit-bearing plants in order to tempt birds to devour 

 and thus disseminate its seeds rather than those of other plants. 

 I believe that the eye of every living creature was produced 

 by Natural Selection, although in some species it consists of 4,000 

 lenses, in others 12,000, 17,000, or 25,000, and in others of 

 various other vast numbers. 



I believe that my theory is right, although I allow that 

 according to it "all nature" ought to be " in confusion" instead of 

 the species being, as we see them, " well defined." 



