THE CROSSING, AC., OF PIGEONS AND FOWLS. 217 



ditions are necessary for the full development of the 

 characters of the several species. These conditions 

 change. With the change in the conditions, comes 

 the modification or suppression of certain of the char- 

 acters. Such modification of structure, entails less- 

 ened fertility, and, eventually, absolute sterility. The 

 Madeira beetles, for instance, which, Darwin says, have 

 been compelled, by the prevalence of high winds, to re- 

 duce their wings to a rudimentary condition, are pass- 

 ing through a course of extinction. Such reduction 

 creates lessened fertility, and lessened constitutional 

 vigor. The accumulated action of interbreeding, will, 

 in time, carry them off. Doubtless, other changes, in 

 the conditions of life, will ensue, and will, by causing 

 further modification of their form, hasten the sterility, 

 which will end the species. 



Evolutionists argue, that there is a harmony, in 

 these adaptations, between the organism and its envi- 

 ronment ; that is, for instance, between the reduction of 

 these beetles' wings and the high winds of their 

 habitat. Whatever that harmony may be ; there is no 

 harmony, but an absolute incongruity, between the 

 modified structure and a perfect, physiological state. 

 There is, in one sense, a harmony subsisting between 

 the fox who has gnawed off his leg, and the trap 

 which closed upon Reynard's crural appendage. For, 

 if the relation were not that of a trap and a dismem- 

 bered fox, there soon would be no Reynard. But, 

 perfect harmony, assuredly, cannot be here predicated. 

 Vital, or Life harmony (as it might be termed), there 



doubtless is ; but anatomical and physiological har- 

 24* 



