THE THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT. 47 



is ever seen to exert such a power now. 

 There are many indications which tend to 

 show that all organisms have been equally- 

 incapable of modification since the earliest 

 monuments of Man. There is no proof that 

 any organism ever did fulfil such functions at 

 any time. The hypothesis is resorted to 

 because of the difficulty of conceiving any 

 method of creation except creation by birth. 

 But this is no adequate standing-ground for a 

 scientific theory. It would be well for those 

 who speculate upon this subject to remember, 

 that whenever a new species or a new class 

 of animal has begun to be, something must 

 have happened which is not in the "ordinary 

 course of nature," as known to us. Some- 

 thing,- therefo.t, must have happened which 



