338 THE EVOLUTION OF LIFE. 



ing nien and wonicn, daring his few hours of life, and 

 speculating as to the mode in which they came into existence ; 

 it is manifest that, reasoning in the usual way, he would 

 suppose each man and woman to have been separately 

 created. No appreciable changes of structure occurring in 

 any of them during the few hours over which his observa- 

 tions extended, this being would probably infer that no 

 changes of structure were taking place, or had taken place ; 

 and that from the outset, each man and woman had pos- 

 sessed all the characters then visible — had been orginally 

 formed with them. This would naturally be the first im- 

 pression. The application is obvious. A human life 

 is ephemeral compared with the life of a species ; and even 

 the period over which the records of human experience 

 extend, is ephemeral compared with the life of a species. 

 There is thus a parallel contrast between the immensely-long 

 series of changes that have occurred during the life of a 

 species, and that small portion of the series open to our view. 

 And there is no reason to suppose that the first conclusion 

 drawn by mankind from this small part of the series visible 

 to them, is any nearer the truth, than would be the conclu- 

 sion of the supposed ephemeral being respecting men and 

 women. 



This analogy, suggesting as it does how the hypothesis of 

 special creations is merely a formula for our ignorance, raises 

 the question — what reason have we to assume special crea- 

 tions of species but not of individuals ; unless it be that in 

 the case of individuals we directly know the process to be 

 otherwise, but in the case of species do not directly know it 

 to be otherwise ? Have we any ground for concluding that 

 species were specially created, except the ground that we 

 haye no immediate knowledge of their origin ? And does our 

 ignorance of the manner in which they arose, warrant us in 

 asserting that they arose by special creation ? 



Another question is suggested by this analogy. Those 

 who, in the absence of immediate evidence of the way in 



