REVERSION, NOT A LAW, STJI GENERIS. lit 



ment, reproduction, reversion, or redintegration, can, 

 by any possibility, justly enter, as an element, into a 

 process of development, designed to prove unlimited 

 growth, unlimited development or unlimited integra- 

 tion, is a mystery, to every one acquainted with the 

 canons of logic. Darwin has collected, from various 

 sources, a great number of interesting facts; and -has 

 thereby rendered a great service to science; but, if he 

 had devoted a tithe of the labor, and of the time, to 

 showing the relevancy of those facts, in connection 

 with his theory, he would have furnished his read- 

 ers, with something of infinitely more value than 

 facts. 



He has, however, ingeniously availed himself of an 

 erroneous notion of his adversaries ; namely, that, as 

 the state of nature was the state in which the Creator 

 placed the Animals and Plants, when He created 

 them, therefore, the structure, as existing now, in the 

 state of nature, must be the normal, perfect mould, — 

 which is a glaring non sequitur. Darwin, however, 

 though he does not believe in any such alleged, normal 

 structure, derives a great, temporary benefit from the 

 said mistake; for, it allows him to argue thus: If the 

 structure, of any animal or plant, as now existing 

 under nature, is the normal build, then the variations 

 occurring under domestication, are something over 

 and above the development which the Creator estab- 

 lished: If so; then, who is to say, that there is a 

 limit to such residual development? And, if so, it is 

 probable, that the Creator never fixed any structure for 



any species ; but, instead thereof, the species have gone 

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