REV. JOHN GERARD, F.L.S., ON SPECIES AND THEIR ORIGIN. 125 
real existence, but are mere abstractions, found not in nature, 
but only in the mind which creates them, and here we are often 
bidden to discern the true key to the question of their origin. 
Thus Mr. G. H. Lewes writes* :— 
“The thing species does not exist: the term expresses an 
abstraction, like Virtue and Whiteness: not a definite concrete 
reality, which can be separated from other things and always 
found the same. Nature produces individuals ; these individuals 
resemble each other in varying degrees; according to their 
resemblances we group them together as classes, orders, genera, 
and species; but these terms only express the relations of 
resemblance, they do not indicate the existence of such things 
as classes, orders, genera, or species. There is a reality indicated 
by each term—that is to say, a real relation; but there is no 
objective existence of which we could say, ‘ This is variable; 
this is immutable.’ ” 
This Mr. Lewes proceeds to apply to the matter now in 
handt :— 
“No sooner [he says] do we understand that ‘Species’ 
means a relation of resemblance between animals, than the 
question of the fixity or variability of species resolves itself 
into this: Can there be any variations in the resemblance of 
closely alhed animals? A question which would never be 
asked.” 
On the same subject Professor Bowne declarest :— 
“In any case, a species is nothing but a group of similar 
individuals. These individuals and the power or powers which 
produce them are the only realities in the case. The important 
problem is not what is a species, but what is the individual and 
what the power that produces individuals. Thus it is clear 
that the transformation of species means simply the production 
of individuals along lines of descent in such a way that, if we 
should take individuals from points mutually distant in such a 
line, they would be so unlike that we should not think of 
classing them together.” 
All this, no doubt, is true enough so far as it goes; but it 
does not take us very far. . Of course, if we define species with 
Mivart as a congeries of characters, innate powers, qualities, and 
the rest, it must clearly be acknowledged that the basis of our 
classification is no more than an abstraction, having no existence 
* Studies in Animal Life, p. 169. 
+ Po 130: 
{ Hibbert Journal, Oct., 1909, p. 133. 
