ORGANIC E VOLUTION. 3 1 



modification ? If it is [ said by design manifested 

 in special creation, we must suppose that the 

 Deity formed an archetypal plan of certain 

 structures, and that He determined to adhere to 

 this plan through all the modifications which 

 those structures exhibit. Now the difficulties in 

 the way of this supposition are prodigious, if not 

 quite insurmountable. In the first place, why is 

 it that some structures are selected as typical and 

 not others ? Why should the vertebral skeleton, 

 for instance, be tortured into every conceivable 

 variety of modification in order to make it service- 

 able for as great a variety of functions ; while 

 another structure, such as the eye, is made in 

 different sub-kingdoms on fundamentally different 

 plans, notwithstanding that it has throughout to 

 perform the same function ? Will any one have 

 the hardihood to assert that in the case of the 

 skeleton the Deity has endeavoured to show His 

 ingenuity by the manifold functions to which He 



