146 THE DOCTRINE OF DESCENT. 
firmation; meanwhile we will at once make ourselves 
acquainted with some of the objections offered to it, 
either to the theory of selection in particular, or to the 
theory of selection combined with the doctrine of trans- 
formation as a whole; the most important of which 
Darwin has already considered and answered. 
If, so it is said, all living beings stand in distinct and 
uninterrupted conriection with one another, what has 
become of the infinitely numerous intermediate forms 
which must necessarily have existed? Our eyes turn 
first to the organisms now living, and as, in accordance 
with the theory, they are assumed to be the terminal 
twigs of an infinitely ramified tree, which must obviously 
press hard upon one another, and must each indepen- 
dently diverge in all directions as varieties, we ask for 
the intermediate forms of the species now existing side 
by side. ; 
We may now appeal to the evidence already given 
(p. 92. &c.), that in complete and extensive groups of 
organisms, modern scientific research has been able to 
discern nothing else than intermediate forms. Similarly, 
the journey undertaken by Kerner in his little book on 
“Good and Bad Species,” in company with the botanist 
Simplicius, from the West of Europe to the East, will 
furnish an amusing number to:+the reader eager for 
further material. The extension of the various species 
of Cytisus which this naturalist has minutely investigated, 
likewise exhibits the uninterrupted existence of connect- 
ing forms on the territorial boundaries of species of which 
the centres of propagation are more or less remote. 
From all these instances, which may be reckoned by 
thousands, it may be inferred that a large proportion 
