CREATION BY LAW, 3801 
the fossil insects discovered in the Coal formation of 
America offer characters intermediate between those of 
existing orders. Agassiz, again, insists strongly that the 
more ancient animals resemble the embryonic forms of 
existing species; but as the embryos of distinct groups 
are known to resemble each other more than the adult 
animals (and in fact to be undistinguishable at a very 
early age), this is the same as saying that the ancient- 
animals are exactly what, on Darwin’s theory, the 
ancestors of existing animals ought to be; and this, 
it must be remembered, is the evidence of one of the 
strongest opponents of the theory of natural selection. 
Conclusion. 
J have thus endeavoured to meet fairly, and to an- 
swer plainly, a few of the most common objections to 
the theory of natural selection, and I have done so in 
every case by referring to admitted facts and to logical 
deductions from those facts. 
As an indication and general summary of the line 
of argument I have adopted, I here give a brief de- 
monstration in a tabular form of the Origin of Species 
by means of Natural Selection, referring for the facts 
to Mr. Darwin’s works, and to the pages in this volume, 
where they are more or less fully treated. 
