7598 



Notices of New Bool(s. 



in some measure ; then, without the slightest reason, stands still, and 

 is not prolonged in the slightest degree through succeeding descend- 

 ants ; otherwise there would be the perpetual obliteration of species 

 going on before us, through the deviation of every individual and its 

 descendants, in every variety of measure, from the original type. We 

 cannot assume even that the correspondence in character of cotempo- 

 rary individuals is the result of absolutely parallel amounts of the 

 same land of variation going on in distinct lines of descent, for as its 

 result is accumulatory, and the original type might be throwing off 

 variations through a length of time, the different ages at which we 

 should view the evenly varying descendants would present different 

 measures of the ever accumulating variation and an apparent difference 

 in the cotemporary descendants, according to their antiquity ; on the 

 other hand, if the principle of variation was inherited unequally, the 

 infinitely complex variety in the kinds and measures of difference that 

 must result in the descendants would be utterly inconsistent with the 

 amount of individuality existing in species. The process of extinction 

 by which Mr. Darwin gets rid of these infinite series of intermediate 

 forms must depend not in their possessing any abstract quality of 

 being intermediate, but in standing at a disadvantage in reproductive 

 and constitutional energy. The question at once presents itself to us. 

 Has this, even on Mr. Darwin's theory, invariably been correlated vvith 

 the differences in measure of the characters separating species, or, in 



other words, has every variation 

 of structure or habit been con- 

 nected with relative power of 

 dominion over the form from 

 which it has been derived ? — 

 for the assumed fact of varia- 

 tions tending to specific cha- 

 racters, conferring a dominant 

 advantage over their inferior 

 . ancestors, is the very essence of 

 the argument. 



Referring to the annexed 

 diagram, let F and y represent 

 two species, and B, C, D and 

 E, and h, c, d and e the ex- 

 tinct steps of variation that 

 have led to them from some 

 common parent, A, or the two 



