93 



they have to do ; yet I helieve there are not many, who, 

 if modifications were to be shown them as the fixed 

 result of disturbances from without, would be prepared 

 at once practically to accept them as such. The col- 

 lectors of the present day are so prone to regard every 

 permanent difierence as a specific one, that a large pro- 

 portion of them do not sufficiently realize, that well- 

 marked races, or states, are no longer matters of hypo- 

 thesis, but of fact ; and that, therefore, a sensible 

 amount of aberration should not only be conceded to the 

 action of certain physical com^binations and elements, 

 but even anticipated and looked for. Such however 

 ought not to be ; and earnestly therefore would I advo- 

 cate a greater latitude for geographical rafluences than 

 has been hitherto admitted by many of us. Especially 

 would I urge the necessity for a more careful study of 

 insular phsenomena, for I am convinced that a due allow- 

 ance is seldom, if ever, made for the qualifying power of 

 isolation, per se, — the most significant perhaps of all the 

 conditions which we have attempted in the preceding 

 pages to examine. 



" Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas " is a 

 motto which the student of Nature should keep con- 

 stantly in view ; for it is undoubtedly a more honourable 

 task to discover the reasons for what we see, than the 

 mere appearances themselves. He who has dived deeply 

 into the everyday circumstances around him will be 

 reluctant to ascribe so much as a single item of all that 

 comes within his ken, to chance ; for to him the whole 



