84 



character of any species is possible to be reduced ir 

 any way, or suppressed, without impairing the consti- 

 tutional vigor and fertility of the organism; and thai 

 such reduction or suppression of the characters of a 

 species, may progress to a very slight extent only, 

 without entailing complete sterility, and a general 

 breaking up of the whole constitution, — very soon 

 ending in death. 



But, Darwin started to prove the evolution of species 

 from one another, by means of slight, successive ad- 

 vances in development, or variations. This issue we 

 meet, by conclusively showing, that the variations to 

 which he appeals, could not have produced the devel- 

 opment in question, because they are amenable to a 

 limit, very soon reached; and, because every such in- 

 crement, or every such variation, which is of a posi- 

 tive character, is but the mere regain of a character 

 lost, by the species in which it occurs, by a process 

 of degeneration conclusively established by Darwin 

 himself. But, one^half of the time, Darwin seems to 

 have forgotten his predicate, and postulates, in the 

 stead thereof, degeneration. He, instead of showing 

 the evolution of species, seems rather to contend, 

 that all the different species have been produced by 

 degeneration, — that they are all various degenerations 

 of some higher type. Notably, in his work on the 

 "Fertilization of Orchids" which is a work ancillary 

 to his " Origin of Species" does he argue that the 

 different species are modifications of one Higher type. 

 But, even the hypothesis of degeneration, is refuted 

 by the converse theory, propounded in this work. As 



