species have a real existence or not in nature ; and it appears to me that 
our idea of the credibility or incredibility of the hypothesis must almost 
depend on that. There are various arguments which have been urged 
against Darwin’s views; and it is difficult to conceive how an eye could 
be produced by a sensitive nerve : but I need not repeat them. I have no 
doubt Mr. Warington can remove a great many of these difficulties, and I do 
not think he will have much difficulty in answering much that has been said 
against him this evening. But allow me to produce one argument which 
appears to me (I do not know why) not to have had the attention given to it 
which it deserves. It is this. The Darwinian hypothesis absolutely insists 
on this, that every modification of an animal or plant must, in order to be- 
come permanent, be an improvement, and fit it more for the condition in 
which it is. Hence, to take Mr. Manners’s poetic illustrations, we can under- 
stand, on the Darwinian hypothesis, the elongation of the nose of the elephant ; 
because every elongation of its nose made it better adapted for getting plants. 
We can understand perfectly well the stag lengthening its neck, so as to 
become a giraffe ; because the longer the neck the more suitable for getting 
branches from trees. But then there are various organs which are of no use 
whatever till they are of a certain development, and there there appears to 
me to be a great difficulty. I will instance the wing. Until the wing is 
sufficiently large or strongly developed to be able to lift the creature from 
the ground and to carry it through the air, it is of no use whatever ; 
the half-developed wing would be only an impediment. If we go into 
the history of birds or winged creatures, we of course find that they are 
made upon the general plan of the vertebrata. We cannot say confidently 
whether the bird or the mammal came first ; but we know that before birds 
were on the earth, there were huge quadrupeds of the Saurian order, and 
abundance of fishes. Now what gave rise to these birds ? Did they come from 
fishes or quadrupeds ? In any case, it is difficult to imagine that the conversion 
of the front fins of the fish, or of the fore-legs of the quadruped into wings, 
would not be inconvenient for the animal ; and that each step would 
not be a great difficulty in their way ; therefore, the creatures modified in 
that manner would soon perish, and the birds never be produced. To take a 
more specific case, that of the bat. We know that the bat differs in ever so 
little a degree from the mouse, — in scarcely anything except the length of the 
fore-limbs, and the membrane by which it flies. Now, it is inconceivable 
that the bat could be produced from anything but a small mammal like a 
mouse. And, if we imagine the lengthening of the front legs and the 
formation of the web between the fingers, I think during that process we 
should get something neither fit for one thing nor another, which would 
hobble uncomfortably on its thumbs, as the bat now does when on the 
ground, but without the power of flying. I should like to know what can 
be said in reference to this. It appears to me a difficulty ; but one which 
may be only founded on my ignorance and want of imagination ; and per- 
haps other persons may be able to show clearly how this might have possibly 
taken place. As to the difficulties that arise from the theological point of 
