INTRODUCTION. 71 



in which many individuals live a common life, as the coral?. — so 

 that the number of individuals usually found together is one of the 

 peculiar natural characteristics of species. The reproductive- 

 of animals proves, then, that many of them were not created in single 

 pairs, or in a number of pairs; for thus they could not haw propa- 

 gated their species. " The idea of a pair of herrings or a pair of 

 buffaloes is as contrary to the nature and habits of those animals, as 

 it is contrary to the nature of pines and birches to grow singly, and 

 form forests in their isolation. A bee-hive never consists of a pair 

 a, and never could such a pair preserve the species, with their 

 habits." " Was the primitive pair of lions to abstain from food 

 until the gazelles and other antelopes had sufficiently multiplied to 

 preserve their races from the persecution of those ferocious beasts ?" 

 We find the same animals occurring in places distant from each 

 Other, in Europe and America, under such circumstances that we 

 must admit their simultaneous origin in both centres. Setting 

 aside the possibility of the conveyance of eggs in th I birds, 



&c., which, after having been rejected or laid in the water, may 

 spread species to a certain extent, the great mass of facts can hardly 



be explained in this way. unless by a very great stretch of credulity. 



We can only refer to this paper* by Agassiz, where many instances 



are adduced, which show that animals have originated primitively over 



the whole extent of their natural distribution, and in large numbers; 

 and that the same species may have a multiple origin, as is shown 

 by the lions in A.frica, the fishes of the Rhine, Rhone, and Danube, 

 1- it not, then, equivalent to making physical influences more 

 powerful than the Creator, to trace all animals from a common 

 centre, and to trust the production of animals to a sin:;/' ]>air, 

 exposed to innumerable accidents from climate and the attacks of 

 other animals ? In the words ol 5,f " The view of mankind 



as originating from a Bingle pair, Adam and Eve, and of the ani- 

 mals and plants as having originated from one common centre, winch 

 was at the same time the cradle of humanity, is neither a biblical 

 view nor a correct view, nor one agreeing with the results of 

 science ; and our profound veneration for the Sacred Scriptures 

 prompts us to pronounce the prevailing view of the origin of man, 

 animals and plants, as a mere human hypothesis, not entitled to 

 more consideration than belongs to most theories formed in the 

 infancy of science." 



Considering, then, the climatic varieties of man as primitive, 



♦Christian Examiner, March, 1850. tlbil. 



