92 VARIATIONS, DUE TO REVERSION. 



or under nature, is due to the regain of characters, 

 once lost, by the respective species ? 



Mark the alternative : If included under the head of 

 reversion, these variations confessedly obey a known, 

 scientific law. If taken without the operation of that 

 law (as Darwin does, without warrant or excuse, and 

 only to save his theory from signal explosion) they 

 must be relegated to what? to "innate tendency," to 

 "spontaneous variability,'' to "nature and constitution 

 of the being that varies" and to "unknown causes," 

 of all of which "our ignorance is profound." The 

 theory of reversion does not rely solely upon this 

 overpowering presumption; nor upon its competency 

 to cover all the'facts; nor upon the absurdity of the 

 alternative explanation (!) of variations. For, it is 

 shown, aliunde, that an ancient progenitor of each 

 species, had all the characters fully and proportion- 

 ately developed. The proof lies in the circumstance, 

 that each and every animal and plant, in the world, 

 is defective (not merely structurally, but physiologi- 

 cally), in proportion as it lacks any positive characters- 

 of its species; and that the injury, thereby caused, 

 abates proportionately as it regains the integrity of 

 its species. And then, to round this theory of devel- 

 opment, there is the sterility of hybrids ! 



On page 49, Vol. ii, Animals and Plants, &c, he 

 says: 



"When two distinct races are crossed, it is notorious 

 that the tendency in the offspring, to revert to one or 

 both parent forms, is strong, and endures for many 

 generations. I have myself seen the clearest evi- 



