Ch. i. Wallace. Condorcet. 13 



the improvement is the increase of size. The 

 flower has grown gradually larger by cultiva- 

 tion. If the progress were really unlimited, it 

 might be increased ad infinitum ; but this is so 

 gross an absurdity, that we may be quite sure 

 that, among plants as well as among animals, 

 there is a limit to improvement^ though we do 

 not exactly know where it is. It is probable that 

 the gardeners who contend for flower-prizes have 

 often applied stronger dressing without success. 

 At the same time it would be highly presump- 

 tuous in any man to say, that he had seen the finest 

 carnation or anemone that could ever be made to 

 grow. He might, however, assert, without the 

 smallest chance of being contradicted by a future 

 fact, that no carnation or anemone could ever, by 

 cultivation, be increased to the size of a large 

 cabbage ; and yet there are assignable quantities 

 greater than a cabbage. No man can say that he 

 has seen the largest ear of wheat, or the largest 

 oak, that could ever grow ; but he might easily, 

 and with perfect certainty, name a point of mag- 

 nitude at which they would not arrive. In all 

 these cases, therefore, a careful distinction should 

 be made between an unlimited progress, and a 

 progress where the limit is merely undefined. 



It will be said, perhaps, that the reason why 

 plants and animals cannot increase indefinitely in 

 size is, that they would fall by their own weight. 

 I answer, how do we know this but from experi- 

 ence ? from experience of the degree of strength, 

 with which these bodies are formed. I know, 



