194. THE DOCTRINE OF DESCENT. 
into the bird as a “ chance,” if he does not peradventure 
regard it as predestined. To us, who trace the bird 
backwards to its origin, it seems the result of mechanical 
causes. 
Let us now recapitulate what we have gained by 
the doctrine of Descent, based on the theory of selec- 
tion ; it is the knowledge of the connection of organisms 
as consanguineous beings. The greater the accordance 
of internal and external characteristics, the closer is the 
kinship. The further we trace the pedigree to its origin, 
the fewer become the characters persisting to these 
roots, the more do these characters reveal themselves as 
acquisitions in the lapse of time. As we eliminate these 
acquisitions and the inherited characters, the further 
we probe, the more do we restrict and reconstruct the 
pedigrees of the various groups.” 
We do the very thing which in linguistic inquiry 
is deemed extremely natural and scientific. The ideas 
and words common to the individuals of a linguistic 
family are the inheritance from the intellectual and 
linguistic property of the original people, from which 
the pedigree of the family has ramified. This so-called 
“chance” prevailed in the formation of the derived 
languages neither more or less than in the evolution 
of organisms from their original forms. 
