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raneous and specific creations, will be found to hold good with 

 successive typical creations, or " realizations of ideas/^ 



Now, the most potent objections lie in the fact that many 

 species are connected by intermediate and often minutely gra- 

 dational forms. Thus, just as the graduations of varieties con- 

 necting osculant species bear a prima facie probability against 

 each individual of coexisting species having been called into 

 existence by a special creative fiat; and again, as osculant 

 genera and osculant orders connecting prominently typical 

 existing groups impart the same impression; so do the links 

 found between ^' forms and types of successive geological 

 ages (in addition to those found frequently in contemporaneous 

 periods) bear exactly the same prima facie evidence against 

 successive creative fiats having been made. 



The following examples will furnish sufficient illustration of 

 this. Of contemporaneous geological periods there are forms 

 which unite the mastodon and elephant, the former genus being 

 now extinct. In the Oolitic periods the Dinosauria furnished 

 the link between reptiles and birds. In the Carboniferous 

 epoch the Archegosaurus retains old piscine characters of De- 

 vonian fish, and links them on to the amphibia ; while the am- 

 phib la, as a large group, stand intermediate between fishes and 

 reptiles. Again, the extinct Ictitherium of the Miocene epoch 

 has become differentiated into hyenas and civets, now represent- 

 ing two distinct families. The extinct Palceotherium of the 

 Eocene and the Horse of modern times are united by the Hip- 

 parion and other forms of the Miocene and Pliocene epochs. 

 And lastly, the very distinct shells of our seashore, Purpura 

 lapillus and Fusus antiquus, are connected by intermediate forms 

 during the Red Crag (Pliocene) epoch. 



Again, just as in applying the argument of design to such 

 plans or types as we see in nature, so identically the same features 

 will appear transitional in discussing the design of individual 

 organs. We saw that in some parts of the organism it seemed 

 very pronounced, as in the well-developed limbs of certain 

 lizards ; while in others we could scarcely or not at all see it, as 

 in their rudimentary or useless structures. These, however, it 

 will be remembered, had a significance which cannot be over- 

 rated, for they bear incontestable evidence to evolution. Simi- 

 larly when we consider the organs of many other animals so 

 admirably adapted for their respective modes of life, design 

 seems obvious; but when we examine transitional forms, and 

 see those very structures, which appeared to be marvellous in- 

 stances of design, becoming useless, while new processes take 

 their place, we can only say that as design dies out in one 

 direction it gradually appears in another. 



