CHAPTER XXV. 



GENERAL REMARKS ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF SPECIES. 



Origin of 

 life iu 

 Creative 

 Power. 



Only two 

 theories 

 are pos- 

 sible as to 

 the origin 

 of species; 

 se]3arate 

 creations, 

 or develop- 

 ment. 



Question 

 raised by 

 geological 

 discovery. 



Difficul- 

 ties of de- 

 velopment 

 theory 

 partly are 

 probably 

 insoluble, 



IN giving a brief summary of tlie argument on the origin 

 of species, it is best to begin by repeating, that the 

 origin of life is a distinct question. "We have every reason 

 to believe that Kfe, like matter, has had its origin in the 

 direct action of Creative Power. Accepting, then, the facts 

 of life, with the laws of habit and variation, as primary 

 data, the question is, how particular organic structures, and 

 particular organic species, have come into existence. 



Let us take the question of the origin of species first, as 

 indeed it includes the other. Only two answers to this 

 question appear to be possible. Either every species (with 

 of course great indefiniteness as to the question what are 

 in point of fact real and distinct species), — either every 

 species, I say, has been separately created, or all species, 

 both animal and vegetable, have been derived, by descent 

 with modification, from one, or at most a few, germs that 

 were originally vitalized by Creative Power. So long as 

 the world was believed to be only a few days older than 

 man, the theory of separate creations was necessarily 

 accepted. But when geological time was found to be 

 indefinitely long, and when geology further disclosed the 

 fact of a succession of species, the one set displacing the 

 other and succeeding to it throughout geological time, the 

 question of the possibihty of a change of species through 

 descent was immediately raised. Such an hypothesis is no 

 doubt surrounded with difficulties; or, it would be more 

 correct to say, such an hypothesis raises a vast number of 

 questions, most of which are not yet solved, and may pro- 



