ROSS ON EVOLUTION. 433' 



minutest particular by laws involving complications, a few of which 

 I attempted to indicate. It is perhaps worthy of remark that if 

 Species were created by an immediate act instead of by a continuous 

 process, and each put into a particular spot of the land or water, 

 which was to become its home, they must, unless created in consid- 

 erable numbers, have been miraculously preserved also, inasmuch 

 as otherwise, in many cases, they v/ould be sure to be exterminated 

 almost immediately. Again, a belief in the miraculous creation of 

 each Species almost necessarily leads to a belief in the creation of 

 representatives of it in distinct and often widely distant centres, as 

 was held by the late Prof. Agassiz, and also to this difficulty, 

 that since the various Races of Mankind, exhibit differences equal 

 to and even greater than those which are considered Specific in the 

 lower animals, we are driven to the conclusion, which was reached 

 by Agassiz, viz. : that Man consists of distinct Species and may 

 have had many while he must have had several distinct centres of 

 creation. I quote the words of Agassiz : '*Now, then, what do 

 we find among men? Similar differences again. For meii have 

 not all the same complexion, nor do they all exhibit the same 

 characterifstic features. And here let me urge upon you this fact, 

 for we cannot consider the relations of mankind to monkeys unless 

 we are aware how widely men differ from one another. While 

 they have all the characteristics of humanity, there are yet among 

 them differences about as striking as the differences which distin- 

 guish some of these genera of monkeys from one another — as 

 striking unquestionably as the differences of some of the species of 

 monkeys from one another. And I am bound to say that unless 

 we recognize the differences among men, and we recognize the 

 identity of these differences with the differences which exist among 

 animals, we are not true to our subject. And whatever be the 

 origin of these differences, they are of some account, and if it ever 

 is proved that all men have a common origin, then it will be at the 

 same time proved that all monkeys have a common origin, and it 

 will by the same evidence be proved that men and monkeys cannot 

 have a different origin. This is the appalling feature of the subject 

 — that the characteristices which distinguish the different races of 

 men are of the sam»e nature as the characteristics which distinoruish 



