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only succeeds another by almost insensible changes of structure, but that 
organs found in a rudimentary state in one being are found in perfection in 
some being further down the chain. He accounts for this continuous chain 
by the hypothesis that every member of any one of these eight or ten chains 
has descended from one common ancestor. That the differences to be found 
between any given members of the chain are accountable for, by a law that 
any accidental change of structure taking place in a plant or animal is trans- 
missible to its offspring. That, if favourable to the existence of the creature, 
it will give it an advantage in the struggle of life, and be perpetuated until 
improved again by accident. That this hypothesis is sufficient to account for 
all the varieties of structure and for the formation of every complex organ of 
animal or vegetable beings we may find in the animate world. Assuming 
that he has proved the existence of some eight or ten beings from which 
all others have been derived by natural descent, he says in his first edition, 
“ Therefore I should infer from analogy that probably all the organic beings 
which have ever lived on this earth have descended from one form, into 
which life was breathed by the Creator/’ Here, in passing, I cannot refrain 
from remarking that this admission of a Creator breathing life into one form 
at least, has disappeared from the later editions of Mr. Darwin’s book — 
Mr. Warington. — It is to be found in another page. 
The Chairman. — I have not seen it. 
Mr. Warington. — It is in the last edition, on another page.* 
The Chairman. — Now I ask, why are we called upon to receive this 
hypothesis with so little proof? For Mr. Darwin has never given us the 
proofs of his hypothesis — for these we are to wait for a future work. Why 
are we to receive a hypothesis so monstrous, so incredible as I conceive 
it to be ? For what other hypothesis is it to be substituted ? For this, 
that instead of the Creator breathing the breath of life into one pri- 
mordial being, he did it into many. That the surprising uniformity seen 
to run through the animate creation, is the uniformity of plan of one 
Divine Creator. That organs and structures have not been formed by 
chance changes, propagated by the destruction of weaker creatures, but 
owe the marvellous wisdom, marking their design for the welfare of the 
creatures in whom they are found, to the direct power of their Creator. 
It has ever been held as a principle in natural philosophy, that we are 
not called upon to abandon any law or hypothesis founded on a large induc- 
tion of facts, till that law or that hypothesis is found insufficient to account 
for any new facts that may present themselves. Mr. Warington has referred 
to an analogy — an analogy of which Mr. Darwin seems exceedingly proud — 
between the simplicity of his own law of the formation of species by what he 
calls the “ Law of the preservation of races in the struggle of life by means 
of natural selection,” and that of the law of gravitation. Notwithstanding 
* Mr. Darwin has removed the admission of a Creator of one form at least 
from the passage where it originally stood in the first edition, in the middle 
of the work, to a page near the end. — W. M. 
H 2 
