142 SPECIES AND BREEDS. 
no way altered the character of the Species, but 
only developed its pliability under the will of man, 
that is, under a power similar in its nature and 
mode of action to that power to which animals owe 
their very existence. The influence of man up- 
on animals is, in other words, the action of mind 
upon them; and yet the ordinary mode of argu- 
ing upon this subject is, that, because the intelli- 
gence of man has been able to produce certain 
varieties in domesticated animals, therefore phys- 
ical causes have produced all the diversity exist- 
ing among wild ones. Surely, the sounder logic 
would be to infer, that, because our finite intel- 
ligence may cause the original pattern to vary 
by some slight shades of difference, therefore a 
superior intelligence must have established all the 
boundless diversity of which our boasted varieties 
are but the faintest echo. It is the most intelli- 
gent farmer who has the greatest success in im- 
proving his breeds ; and if the animals he has so 
fostered are left to themselves without that intel- 
ligent care, they return to their normal condition. 
So with plants: the shrewd, observing, thought- 
ful gardener will obtain many varieties from his 
flowers ; but those varieties will fade out, if left 
to themselves. There is, as it were, a certain 
degree of pliability and docility in the organiza- 
tion both of animals and plants, which may be 
developed by the fostering care of man, and with- 
