OBJECTIONS TO THE DARWINIAN THEORY 153 



descent from a common ancestor, or branches of 

 one stem. 



Take for example the domestic pigeons. The 

 blue rock is the common ancestor of all our domestic 

 races, and is not in any sense intermediate between 

 existing forms, such as a pouter and a fantail. Such 

 intermediate forms have not existed at any time. 

 So it is with ourselves : the real bond of union is 

 through descent; two brothers are related, not 

 directly, but through the parents ; and with cousins 

 the grandfather forms the real link. 



These examples show that the actual links are 

 not direct, but indirect ; and that, unless careful, we 

 may spend much time in looking for links where 

 they could not exist, and overlook the real ones 

 which are before our eyes all the time. This may 

 be rendered deceptive by the occurrence of actual 

 intermediate forms which are not true links, and 

 against which we must be on our guard. An 

 example will make this point clear. 



The horse and the donkey are closely allied 

 animals : midway between them is the mule, which 

 shares the characters of both its parents. Yet this 

 is clearly no true link, but an artificial unnatural 

 creation that could not possibly have existed prior to 

 either the horse or the donkey. 



Horse Mule Donkey 



Ancestor 



