44 DARWINISM TESTED BY 



we should be still worse off than the 

 zoologists and botanists, who have at all 

 events remains of anterior formations at 

 their disposal, and whose scientific objects 

 are generally more open to observation 

 than languages. As it is, we are better 

 off for materials of observation than the 

 other naturalists, and therefore we have 

 forestalled you in the idea of the non- 

 creation of the species. Perhaps also the 

 changes may have generally taken place 

 in shorter periods of time in language 

 than in the animal and vegetable king- 

 doms, so that the zoologist or botanist 

 could only be favourably contrasted with 

 us, if he had been able to observe in some 

 genera at least a complete chain of what 

 we might call pre-historic forms, and these 

 moreover represented by specimens care- 

 fully preserved — that is to say, flesh and 

 blood, leaf, blossom, and fruit. The kin- 



