ast 
Meg 
Consider what may be called the system of Agassiz; 
_ hame only because he has given to it great development and full 
Prof. Parsons on the Origin of Species. te. 
variation, we may infer that it must be a very broad one, from 
the instances of extreme monstrosity which science has recorded. 
Let us say, then, that we will assume that there may be as much 
variation or aberration as these records prove that there has 
een, and no mor 
ment, as we know that offspring have differed in the way of loss, 
of hindrance and of degradation; and therefore when I speak 
of extreme aberration I shall mean by it variation carried to 
this extent. 
Admitting this principle as possible, let us proceed with it to 
iz; using his 
illustration. 
Take first his assertion that there must have been in each geo- 
logical age many new creatures; say if you please an hundred 
or a thousand, and consider this as proved and admitted. Still 
it leaves wholly untouched the question how these new creatures 
_ Were created. And be the answer what it may, that answer 
. 
80 Jar as it is only an answer to this question, leaves the asser- 
tion of Agassiz untouched. But if we bring to the question, 
how were these creatures created? the possibility of aberrant va- 
nation of offspring in the direction of improvement, we bring 
to it one answer. For example: suppose the time to have come 
When there is to be a new creation, and it is to be a dog, or 
Tather two dogs, which will be the parents of all dogs. How 
; shall the be created? We may say of this either of five things. 
18, that we do not know, and never can know, and had bet- 
ter not inquire. This does not seem any answer. A second is, 
that they will be created “ by chance.” This also seems to me 
no answer, because chance is a word only and nota thing. A 
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