DARWIN 111 



as not due to a mighty divine interference, was it 

 Dt conceivable that the origin also may not have 

 seded such? 



One more deduction, and the demon of know- 

 idge had hold of the entire hand. May not this 

 atural extinction and natural new-birth have been 

 Lrectly connected in many cases? As a fact, 

 Dme of the species had been wholly extirpated, 

 ►ut others had provided the living material of 

 le new arrivals ; they had been transformed into 

 lese apparently new species. That was the 

 ecisive deduction. It did away with the need 

 f any sudden creation. It merely made a claim 

 hiat was appalling to the Linnean principles : 

 amely, that species may change. In the course 

 f time and at a favourable spot one species may 

 e transformed into another. 



Another fairly obvious deduction could be made. 

 Vho brought about the transformation ? Lyell 

 iroved that, without any catastrophes, terrestrial 

 hings are constantly changing — the water and the 

 and, the mountains and the valleys, and even the 

 limate. In this gradual change the environments 

 if living things were at length altered to such an 

 ixtent that they were bound to cause a change 

 Q the organisms. However, different species 

 eacted in different ways. Some gradually died 

 •ut. Others adapted themselves to the new 

 londitions ; just as, in human affairs, one race 

 »reaks down under changed conditions while 

 another rises to a higher and richer and new 

 tage on that very account. No creation ! Merely 



