CHAPTER II. 



Darwin's Ignorance of the Law of Variations ; and his 

 False Assumption of no Limit to Improvements. 



After Darwin had adduced his facts, of the improve- 

 ments among animals and plants, the next step which 

 it behooved him to take, before he assumed that there ' 

 was no-limit to such improvements, was to generalize " 

 those facts; to develop their cause; to discover the 

 law, governing the appearance of the variations; and 

 ' to ascertain, whether such law fixed a limit to such, 

 variations, or was silent on the subject. If, when dis- 

 covered, the law assigned a limit to the improvements* 

 in each species, then, manifestly, no theory of the 

 indefinite accumulation of such variations, would be"~ 

 possible. If, however, the law, when resolved, were to 

 imply that such variations were possible to be carried ■ 

 on to an unlimited extent; or, even if the law were, 

 silent on the subject; no exception to the principal pos- • 

 tulate of Darwinism (viz., unlimited improvement)' 

 could be taken. 



But, while the cause, or law, of the improvements, 

 remained unresolved, it was evident, that any theory, 

 based upon such improvements, must needs be illegiti- 

 mate ; not necessarily false, but illegitimate, inasmuch 



as the assumption of a limit, or the assumption of 



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