HARWIN and descent. 213 



in breaking down the distinction between species, by 

 connecting them together by numerous, fine, inter- 

 mediate varieties ; and this not having been effected, 

 is probably the gravest and most obvious of all the 

 many objections which may be urged against my 

 views" (p: 299.) 



We naturally took " my views " to mean descent 

 with modification. The "my" has been allowed to 

 stand. 



Again :— 



" If, then, there be some degree of truth in these 

 remarks, we have no right to expect to find in our 

 geological formations an infinite number of those 

 transitional forms which on my theory assuredly have 

 connected all the past and present species of the same 

 group in one long and branching chain of life. . . . 

 But I do not pretend that I should ever have sus- 

 pected how poor was the record in the best preserved 

 geological sections, had not the absence of innumerable 

 transitional links between the species which lived at 

 the commencement and at the close of each formation 

 pressed so hardly on my theory" (pp. 301, 302). 



Substitute "descent with modification" for "my 

 theory" and the meaning does not sufier. The first 

 of the two " my theories " in the passage last quoted 

 was altered in 1869 into "our theory;" the second 

 has been allowed to stand. 



Again : — 



" The abrupt manner in which whole groups of 

 species suddenly appear in some formations, has 

 been urged by several palaeontologists ... as a fatal 



