486 CONCLUSION. Chap. XIV. 



and instinct as the summing up of many contrivances, 

 each useful to the possessor, nearly in the same way as 

 when we look at any great mechanical invention as the 

 summing up of the labour, the experience, the reason, 

 and even the blunders of numerous workmen ; when we 

 thus view each organic being, how far more interesting, 

 I speak from experience, will the study of natural 

 history become ! 



A grand and almost untrodden field of inquiry will 

 be opened, on the causes and laws of variation, on corre- 

 lation of growth, on the effects of use and disuse, on 

 the direct action of external conditions, and so forth. 

 The study of domestic productions will rise immensely 

 in value. A new variety raised by man will be a far 

 more important and interesting subject for study than 

 one more species added to the infinitude of already 

 recorded species. Our classifications will come to be, as 

 far as they can be so made, genealogies ; and will then 

 truly give what may be called the plan of creation. 

 The rules for classifying will no doubt become simpler 

 when we have a definite object in view. We possess no 

 pedigrees or armorial bearings ; and we have to dis- 

 cover and trace the many diverging lines of descent in 

 our natural genealogies, by characters of any kind which 

 have long been inherited. Rudimentary organs will 

 speak infallibly with respect to the nature of long-lost 

 structures. Species and groups of species, which are 

 called aberrant, and which may fancifully be called 

 living fossils, will aid us in forming a picture of the 

 ancient forms of life. Embryology will reveal to us the 

 structure, in some degree obscured, of the prototypes of 

 each great class. 



When we can feel assured that all the individuals of 

 the same species, and all the closely allied species of 

 most genera, have within a not very remote period de- 



