CONCLUDING REMARKS. 431 



Second: This assumption of No Limit, is illegitimate, 

 because the sole, possible warrant which might have 

 been urged to sustain it, — viz., the presumption that, as 

 variations' are now seen to go on multiplying, they 

 may still go on multiplying forever, or indefinitely, or 

 may have, in the past, gone on multiplying indefi- 

 nitely, — is invalidated by reason of Darwin's prece- 

 dent (alleged) failure to resolve the law or the cause 

 of variations, which law or cause, if discovered, would, 

 presumably, have determined whether there was or 

 was not a limit. 



Third: This assumption of No Limit is, on the 

 other hand, negatived by the fact, that the law of 

 Variations is actually resolved by Darwin, and that 

 law, — namely, Reversion, or the principle of the regain 

 or re-development of characters which were previ- 

 ously lost or reduced, — imposes a definite limit to the 

 Variations; — no more characters may be regained 

 than were originally lost by the respective, varying 

 species. 



7. Darwin's next proposition is, that it is possible, 

 upon principles of analogy, that Variations now arise, 

 under Nature, and that they may, in the past, have 

 there arisen, in much the same manner that Varia- 

 tions arise under domestication ; and that those Varia- 

 tions may have frequently given their owners such an 

 advantage, in their competition with their fellows, 

 as to secure to them a prolonged existence, and the 

 opportunity of leaving offspring in whom the said 

 variations would be continued. 



No exception has been taken to this proposition, 



