Dr J. W. Dawson on the Antiquity of Man, 55 



be looked for in an epoch more distant from the age of the 

 ElepJias primigenius than that is from us/' They may, in 

 short, spare themselves the trouble of looking for any such 

 transition from apes to men in any period ; for this great 

 lapse of time renders the species practically permanent ; 

 more especially when we bear in mind that of the numer- 

 ous species whose remains are found with those of these 

 ancient men, some have continued unchanged up to our 

 time, and the rest have become extinct, while not one can 

 be proved to have been transmuted into another species. 



Sir Charles devotes no less than five concluding chapters 

 to this doctrine of transmutation, as held by Darwin and 

 others. He does not commit himself to it, but wishes to 

 give it due consideration, as a possible hypothesis, which 

 may at least lead to great truths. We are not disposed to 

 give it quite so high a position. Mr Darwin's book im- 

 pressed us with the conviction that his hypothesis really 

 explains nothing not otherwise explicable, and requires 

 many assumptions difiicult of belief ; while the whole 

 argument in its favour is essentially of the nature of 

 reasoning in a circle. The point to be proved is, that vari- 

 ations arising from external influences and " natural selec- 

 tion" may produce specific diversity. Now, in order to 

 begin our proof of this, we require at least one species, with 

 all its powers and properties, to commence with. This 

 being granted, we proceed to show that it may vary into 

 several races, and that these races, if isolated, may be kept 

 distinct and perpetuated. We further proceed to show that 

 these races difi'er so much, that if wild, and not tampered 

 with, we might suppose them originally distinct. So far all 

 goes well with our demonstration ; but we find that many 

 of the differences of these races are of the nature of mere 

 monstrosities, like the six fingers of some men, which, as 

 far as they go, would exclude the individuals having them, 

 not only from their species, but from their order or class. 

 Further, we find that the differences which do resemble 

 those of species, have not, when tried by the severe test of 

 crossing, that fixity which appertains to true specific differ- 

 ences ; so that with due care all our races can be proved to 

 belong to but one species. Thus our whole argument falls 



