ORGANIC E VOL UTION. 2 5 



language, which has given rise, by way of 

 genetic descent, to a group of living languages 

 — Italian, Spanish, French, and, to a large ex- 

 tent, English. Now what should we think of 

 a philologist who should maintain that English, 

 French, Spanish, and Italian were all specially 

 created languages — or languages separately con- 

 structed by the Deity, and by as many separate 

 acts of inspiration communicated to these several 

 nations — and that their resemblance to the fossil 

 form, Latin, is to be attributed to special design ? 

 Yet the evidence of the natural transmutation 

 of species, is, in one respect, much stronger than 

 that of the natural transmutation of languages 

 — in respect, namely, of there being a vastly 

 greater number of cases all bearing testimony 

 to the fact of genetic relationship. 



