94 Species; or, Darzvinism. 



may be cited as an illustration of the essential 

 obscurity, in the shadow of which the system lives. 

 He observed some 150 races of domesti- 

 i)arwinTsm.° cate d pigeons, developed into such dif- 

 ferences of form, under the action of 

 artificial breeding, or selection, that had they been 

 found so in a wild state we should have been com- 

 pelled, he says, to make three or four genera of them, 

 and still more species. Now, at the same time, he 

 observes that the wild rock pigeons, the original 

 stock of all those domestic races, differ only in shades 

 of color. These observations of Mr. Darwin would 

 show a logical mind two things; first, how much more 

 effective is artificial breeding, or selection by men, 

 than the mere operation of natural conditions, 

 which he calls natural selection; and secondly, 

 that the test of species could not be in color, or 

 form, since these 150 races differed ever so much 

 in color and form, and yet were one and the same 

 species. So would a logical mind infer. How did 

 Mr. Darwin proceed from these identical obser- 

 vations of his own ? In quite the opposite direction, 

 and in the teeth of his own results. First, he de- 

 clined to confine himself to any definition of species, 

 because there is so much confusion among botanists 

 and zoologists about the use of the term. Secondly, 

 he chose to surmise that, since artificial selection 

 had done so much, as to discriminate 150 races in 

 a single species, when natural selection had done so 

 little, as to keep its original rock pigeons not only 



