40 ZOOLOGIGAL PHILOSOPHY 



To assist us to a judgment as to whether the idea of species has 

 any real foundation, let us revert to the principles already set forth ; 

 they show : 



(1) That all the organised bodies of our earth are true productions 

 of nature, wrought successively throughout long periods of time. 



(2) That in her procedure, nature began and still begins by fashion- 

 ing the simplest of organised bodies, and that it is these alone which 

 she fashions immediately, that is to say, only the rudiments of 

 organisation indicated in the term spontaneous generation. 



(3) That, since the rudiments of the animal and plant were 

 fashioned in suitable places and conditions, the properties of a com- 

 mencing Ufe and estabhshed organic movement necessarily caused 

 a gradual development of the organs, and in corurse of time produced 

 diversity in them as in the hmbs. 



(4) That the property of growth is inherent in every part of the 

 organised body, from the earliest manifestations of life ; and then 

 gave rise to different kinds of multiphcation and reproduction, so 

 that the increase of complexity of organisation, and of the shape and 

 variety of the parts, has been preserved. 



(5) That with the help of time, of conditions that necessarily were 

 favourable, of the changes successively undergone by every part of 

 the earth's surface, and, finally, of the power of new conditions and 

 habits to modify the organs of hving bodies, all those which now exist 

 have imperceptibly been fashioned such as we see them. 



(6) That, finally, in this state of affairs every living body underwent 

 greater or smaller changes in its organisation and its parts ; so that what 

 we call species were imperceptibly fashioned among them one after 

 an other and have only a relative constancy, and are not as old as natur^ 



But objections may be raised to the allegation that nature has 

 little by httle fashioned the various animals known to us by the aid 

 of much time and an infinite variation of environment. It may be 

 asked whether this allegation is not refuted by the single fact of the 

 wonderful variety observed in the instinct of various animals, and in 

 the marvellous skill of all kinds which they exhibit. 



Will anyone, it may be asked, venture to carry his love of system 

 so far as to say that nature has created single-handed that astonishing 

 diversity of powers, artifice, cunning, foresight, patience and skill, 

 of which we find so many examples among animals ? Is not what 

 we see in the single class of insects far more than enough to convince 

 us that nature cannot herself produce so many wonders ; and to 

 compel the most obstinate philosopher to recognise that the will of the 

 Supreme Author of all things must be here invoked, and could alone 

 suffice for bringing into existence so many wonderful things ? 



