y 



Ch. XXXIV.] 



TEANSMUTATION OF SPECIES. 



255 



e 



i 





> 



Maker 



rioration in sublunaiy tilings when left to tliemselves 



omnia fatis 



In pejus ruere, ac retro suLlapsa referri. 



So deepl}^ was tlie faith of the ancient schools of philo- 

 sophy imbued with this doctrine^ that^ to check this uni- 

 versal proneness to degeneracy^ nothing less than the re- 

 intervention of the Deity was thought adequate ; and 

 it was held, that thereby the order, excellence, and pristine 



mor 



restored. 



But when the possibility of the 



common 



indefinite modification 

 of individuals descending from 



assumed, as also the geological inference respecting the 

 progressive development of organic life, it was natural that 

 the ancient dogma should be rejected, or rather reversed, 

 and that the most simple and imperfect forms and faculties 

 should be conceived to have been the originals whence all 

 others were developed. Accordingly, in conformity to these 

 views, inert matter was supposed to have been first endowed 

 with life ; until, in the course of ages, sensation was super- 

 sight, hearing, and the other senses 

 were afterwards acquired; then instinct and the mental 

 faculties ; until, finally, by virtue of the tendency of things 



to progressive improvement^ the irrational was developed into 

 the rational. 



The reader, however, will immediately perceive that when 



mere 



animals 



modern 



es of generations from those o 

 some further hypothesis became 



more 



simple 



in order to explain why, after an indefinite lapse of ages, 



there were still so 



many 



Sim 



Why have the majority of existing creatures remained 

 stationary throughout this long succession of epochs, while 

 others have made such prodigious advances ? Why are there 

 such multitudes of infusoria and polyps, or of confervee and 

 other cryptooramic nlants 9 Whv -mnrpmmv "hoc. fi.^ ^^..r^^^oc. 



