66 



same beautiful flowers as before, primroses, violets, cowslips, 

 and bluebells ? Do you not hear the same sweet notes of the 

 birds, and do you not see them build the same wonderfully- 

 constructed nests that they did of yore ? Do you not listen to 

 the cry of the cuckoo as ever of old, and note the instincts of the 

 various animals ? Yes, I hear them and see them, but as they 

 upset my theory, they are " shocking- to me," even as the 

 tameness of the wild animals was to Robinson Crusoe. My 

 reply to all such questions is stereotyped, and therefore can 

 never change, " All organic beings are striving- to seize on each 

 place in the economy of Nature." " To be or not to be, that is 

 the question." There I have Shakespeare for me, you see. 



I believe it, though I see the smaller and the smallest birds 

 maintaining their numbers as of yore the wren and the robin, 

 the thrush and the blackbird, the swallow and 'the dove, and so 

 on through all Creation. So let be. I have no objection ; but 

 what I say, I say ; and what I say is, Natural Selection is the 

 be-all and end-all for me. It works by accidental change and 

 " extermination." Every creature that does not change must be 

 expunged from the page of Nature. You may ask me if the 

 *' Origin of species " is " by means of Natural Selection," what 

 is the origin of Natural Selection, and where it exists ? You 

 may further ask me, as I speak of " favoured races," by whom or 

 by what it is they are favoured? In reply, I can believe that 

 any effect may be produced without an existent cause. 



I believe in assumption without proof, as the highest 

 philosophy ; in speculation, not borne out by facts, and, in a 

 word, in " Imagination hi Science." Let it be so. 



I believe that Locke lays it down that want of 'proof 'is one of 

 the " causes of error," but what of that? "He that's convinced 

 against his will " " I am of the same opinion still." 



I believe, in fine, that "new forms" are continually being 

 produced. You ;isk me to say, where ? That I do not mean to 

 do. All I can say is tliiit unlimited time "might" have produced 

 them ergo, it has been so. There must have been such 

 unlimited time, as begged by my theory, and consequently my 

 case is proved. 



