64 
OUR RACE AND ITS ORIGIN. 
we compare the size, external form, shape of skull, or diverse 
habits, the dog is a striking proof of what alterations they 
are capable of undergoing — the large hairy Newfoundland, 
the delicate Italian greyhound, and hairless dogs of India, 
the bold bulldog, the timid poodle, the spaniel delighting in 
water, the pointer which will not enter it. Their habits too, so 
diverse, the natural instinct of one being to point, of another 
to carry, one to guard, another to assemble and watch over 
what has been entrusted to it ; and yet, with all these varie- 
ties, the genus canis is still the same. We cannot mistake it 
any more than we can the pigeon, with all its artificial 
changes. 
By close observation of the pigeon, and noticing the many 
and great varieties which have been obtained by selection, 
Darwin supposes that through similar means, one species has 
thus in time passed into another, and a more advanced kind 
has been derived, until at last the perfect form of man 
appeared ; but he candidly owns that whilst it is natural to 
expect we should meet with cases of this transition, neither 
experience nor geology lend any support to his theory ; we 
seem to have an actual proof of its failure in the dodo, didun - 
cuius, solitaire , and other similar members of the same family, 
which, though apparently of most ancient ancestry, like many 
remnants of old families, have still made no advance on their 
forefathers, but become effete and died out. 
If the development theory were correct, and various pairs 
of human beings gradually arose from some primitive simple 
forms of life, it would be extremely improbable, when they 
attained their highest and most perfect states, that they 
would still bear such a close resemblance to each other as 
the different sections of the human family are found to do. 
We should rather expect to realize the tales of early tra- 
vellers and navigators, and find some like the Cyclops, others 
hirsute, some with tails, others with some other equally 
outre peculiarity, and certainly none so nearly approaching 
the other, as only to vary a little in the facial angle or in a 
few shades of color. 
Whatever was the primary type which terminated in man. 
