49 



I believe all this, I say, although it will be no use for me to 

 deny that even the common bee closely resembles man in its 

 classes, its government, its laws, its public zeal, its loyalty, and 

 its architecture ; in not one of which respects does the ape even 

 approach to it, much less to us. 



I believe that our speech had its origin in the tones of the 

 voices of birds and beasts. You may ask me how, if so, it is 

 that being so much nearer to the ape than the nightingale, we 

 do not screech like the gorilla instead of singing as we do, but 

 I consider such a question quite irrelevant to my grand 

 argument. 



I believe that Agassiz was altogether wrong when he stated 

 that there is nothing like parental descent connecting the line of 

 Creation ; that Cuvier, to the same effect, was also equally 

 wrong ; and Owen also, in his notion that the foreknowledge of 

 such a being as man must have existed before man appeared or 

 could appear. It is not for me to say ; you must ask them and 

 let them speak for themselves. That's only fair. 



I believe that the wing of the bat, the thousands of lenses of 

 the eye, the electrical organs of fish, and all such wonders of 

 Nature were the results of Natural Selection, or to speak more 

 plainly (!), of " development," "plastic tendencies," "slight 

 modifications," " generative variability," and so on. No doubt 

 you must see all this as clearly as I do. I have rather unfor- 

 tunately said in another part of my book that it is " most difficult 

 to conjecture by what transitions such organs could ever have 

 arrived at their present state." Yes, it may be unfortunate, but 

 I have contradicted myself so often that I now do not mind at 

 all about it. Conjecture has so much befriended me that it must 

 stand me in stead once more here; though "nothing can be 

 more hopeless than to attempt to explain this similarity of 

 pattern in members of the same class by Natural Selection and 

 the struggle for life." All I have to say is, that they " concur 

 like parallel lines meeting in one common centre." You see I 

 have Euclid on my side. 



You may say that if even conjecture can do nothing here, it 

 must be hopeless to look for certainty. So be it. I must 

 follow my own method. If I am satisfied, that is enough. 

 D 



