VARIATIONS, DUE TO KB VERSION. 91 



strives to show a community of origin of species, by- 

 showing that variations have arisen, and that such varia- 

 tions have been accumulated, and have evolved all the 

 different species from 'one low, primordial organism. 

 This course necessitates the assumption, that such varia- 

 tions arise for the first time. His other design is, to 

 show a community of origin of the species, by show- 

 ing that the species have been formed by degeneration ; 

 and that they are but the various modifications of some 

 higher type than them all. This, on the other hand, 

 requires him to maintain, that such variations as arise, 

 were once fully developed in a type higher in the scale 

 of development, than is the species in which the varia- 

 tions occur. Would it be believed, were not Darwin's 

 works so easy of reference, that on the one side of his 

 problem of the evolution of species, is arrayed a mass 

 of positive evidence, which is well nigh appalling, 

 showing degeneration to have been wide-spread, and 

 to have invaded every known species; while, on the 

 other hand, to offset this antithesis to evolution, is 

 Darwin's mere assumption of an occasional variation 

 occurring, under nature, "once in a thousand gen- 

 erations!" The degeneration of each species, under 

 nature, is positive and incontestably attested; whereas, 

 any evolution in any species, under nature, is wholly 

 problematical. When such degeneration, in each 

 species, under nature, is so well established, and when 

 the capacity of each species to regain what it lost, 

 is so fully conceded, is not the presumption an over- 

 powering one, viz., that each and every positive varia- 

 tion, or improvement, occurring under domestication, 



