CREATION BY LAW. 283 



of the Whale, and the Antelope, and the Monkey- 

 being all descended from some one primeval 

 Mammal. Mr Darwin says, truly enough, that 

 Inheritance " is that cause which alone, as far as 

 we positively know, produces organisms quite like, 

 or nearly like, each other." But this is no reason 

 why we should conclude that Inheritance is the 

 only cause which can produce Organisms quite 

 unlike, or only very partially like, each other. 

 We are surely not entitled to assume that all 

 degrees and kinds of likeness can only arise from 

 this single cause. Yet until this extreme pro- 

 position be proved, or rendered probable, we have 

 a sound scientific basis for doubting the applica- 

 tion of the theory precisely in proportion to the 

 unlikeness of the animals to which it is applied. 



And this is the ground of reasoning, besides 

 the ground of feeling, on which we revolt from the 

 doctrine as applied to Man. We do so because 

 we are conscious of an amount and of a kind of 

 difference between ourselves and the lower ani- 

 mals, which is, in sober truth, immeasurable, in 

 spite of the close affinities of bodily structure. 

 Yet the closeness of these affinities is a fact; and 



