234 LUCK, OR CUNNING? 



on tbe direct action of external conditions, and so 

 forth" (p. 486). 



Bufifon and Lamarck had trodden this field to some 

 purpose, but not a hint to this efiect is vouchsafed 

 to us. 



Again : — . 



" When I view all beings not as special creations, hut 

 as the lineal descendants of some few teings which lived 

 long lefore the first bed of the Silurian system was 

 deposited, they seem to me to become ennobled. . . . 

 We can so far take a prophetic glance iuto futurity 

 as to foretell that it wiU be the common and widely 

 spread species, belonging to the larger and dominant 

 groups, which will ultimately prevail and procreate 

 new and dominant species.'' 



There is no alteration in this except that " Silurian " 

 has become " Cambrian." 



The idyllic paragraph with which Mr. Darwin con- 

 cludes his book contains no more special claim to the 

 theory of descent en Hoc than many another which I 

 have allowed to pass unnoticed ; it has been, moreover, 

 dealt with in an earlier chapter (Chapter XII.) 



