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EEV. PROF. G. HENSLOW, M.A., F.L.S., 



Darwin based his theory of evolution almost entirely on 

 Variations in Animals and Plants under Domestication — the title of his 

 two volumes of Data. Surely we have but to think of the 

 innumerable cultivated plants and domesticated animals which have 

 been evolved from wild ones, and are now so totally different, that 

 in many cases the original wild organism is unknown. The whole 

 history is one long era of evolution by experiment ! Take as an 

 example, all the pigeons which have evolved from Columba livida. 

 All the cabbage tribe from Brassica oleracea, all the wheats, maize, 

 barley, etc., from unknown ancestors. Induction is not even 

 required where the whole ancestry is known. Thus, too, 

 Mr. Sutton's admirable forms of Primula sinensis and of cinerarias 

 are now widely different from the original wild forms of China and 

 the Canary Islands, while the latest addition called the " Lady," or 

 by other names, is an approximate reversion to the wild form of the 

 cineraria. 



As to evolution of man ; Nature has made many experiments since 

 his first appearance ; and has evolved many very distinct varieties 

 all over the world. Each is well adapted to its sphere of life, as the 

 Esquimaux to arctic conditions, and the Negro to tropical countries. 

 Surely no one will maintain that each race has been specially created. 



I cannot help thinking that Mr. Sutton has entertained some 

 mistaken idea of what evolution really is. I repeat, it is nothing 

 more than " descent with modification," sometimes " advancing," 

 as often " degenerating," in various directions. 



Whether the changes be called a variety, species, or genus, 

 is just as the systematist chooses to call them. Thus Babington 

 recognized thirty-two British species of willows. Bentham groups 

 them under fifteen. Mr. Sutton says there are infinite varieties of 

 " life," using this term to mean " living beings." But I use the 

 word in its abstract sense ; that is to say, as that which, by its 

 phenomena, indicates a "living being." In this sense there is only 

 one kind of life common to all. He says, " Life itself must be 

 directed," but why may not the life of a plant be endowed with 

 directivity by the Creator 1 A man constructs a watch and 

 " empowers " it with directivity to tell you the time of itself, 

 without the presence of the watchmaker; while in all manufactories 

 the machinery turns out the completed article " designed " by the 

 artificer without his immediate aid. 



