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applicable to one form of life, it must be applicable to 

 all ; and seeing that man is clearly constructed after 

 the same general plan as the species next beneath 

 him, it would be erring against all philosophical 

 principles to shrink from extending to him the same 

 methods of biological research. If geology, physiology, 

 and anatomy are every day founding their conclusions 

 on the belief in the community of life, why should 

 biology be prevented from endeavouring to follow it 

 to its ultimate creational connections 1 It is true that 

 the hypothesis of derivative descent is beset with 

 many difficulties. Admitting the influence of external 

 conditions, the principle of adaptive modification, 

 natural selection, the use and disuse of organs, the 

 power of parental impulse on embryonic development, 

 and the like, to their fullest extent, the variations 

 that take place among living forms are so slow that 

 we cannot point to any case of undoubted specific 

 organisation. And on the other hand, the gaps in 

 the geological record are yet so many that we cannot 



that it was downright, dark, dreary atheism. Human ingenuity- 

 had never been able to adduce one fact in support of this wretched 

 theory. It was triiling with human intelligence to propose it. It 

 was an outrage on common sense to aslc us to ponder it." Such 

 are the reported terms in which he gave vent to his outraged 

 reason ; and yet " trifling " and " wretched " and " outrageous '' as 

 he thought the theory to be, he devoted six long lectures — shall we 

 say of downright, dark, dreary, unreason ? — against it. 



