ITS PLACE IN NATURE 



7 



and fragments tliere stand out among the ruins, from 

 which we endeavour to reconstruct our edifice, just as 

 the skilful architect or antiquary, from the shattered 

 pieces of marble or stone of an ancient temple, will 

 restore to us the noble forms and proportions it once 

 bore. 



The outcome of all recent work in this subject has 

 been, that every fresh discovery which has been made 

 has tended to corroborate, and nothing has been found 

 inconsistent with, the view that the living beings which 

 we see around us have been gradually fashioned into 

 shape by the modification of pre-existing forms — a view 

 of creation which is the grandest, most sublime, and at 

 the same time most reasonable, which has yet been 

 presented to us. 



A few words may be said here upon the impor- 

 tant subject of specialisation, which will be so fre- 

 quently referred to in what follows. The modifications 

 in animal structure which come under this definition 

 may be grouped under three principal headings : (1) 

 The addition of parts not met with in the generality of 

 animals, and, as far as is known, not found in the earliest 

 members of the group which afterwards possess them — 

 as, for example, the antlers of deer, the horns of oxen 

 or the rhinoceros, the humps of camels, &c. (2) The 

 suppression of parts commonly present — as the upper 

 front teeth of ruminants, the tails of bears and guinea- 



