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most important consideration-new races of animals and plants are produced under domestication by man's methodical and unconscious power of selection' (291); and yet the varieties of the dog are not to be accounted for in this way, but by having originally sprung from distinct species. To us, however, Buffon's reasoning on the subject is satisfactory, and he seems to have established the probability that the shepherd's dog is the 'vrai chien de la nature;' the dog that prevails in various parts of the world with the same character, and a similar form, and constitutes in fact 'the stock and the model of the entire species '-' la souche et le modèle de l'espèce entière.'

What then is the general result of all that has been advanced to forward the theory? Truly, we may say, almost nothing. Much is urged about the contradictory evidence afforded us by plants-species that can be united with facility producing hybrids remarkably sterile'-species crossed with difficulty, but with a hybrid progeny when 'at last produced,' fertile. We are told that hybrids never have been raised between species ranked by systematists in distinct families; and a multitude of cases could be given of very closely allied species, which will not unite, or only with extreme difficulty (279); and all this we should have thought tends to prove the case against the theory. But the conclusion with Mr Darwin is in these words: 'Do these singular and complex rules indicate that species has been endowed with sterility simply to prevent their becoming confounded in nature? I think not-to grant to species the special power of producing hybrids, and then to stop their further propagation by different degrees of sterility, not strictly related to the facility of the first

union between their parents, seems to be a strange arrangement' (282).

What matters it if the rules be singular and complex; for, if in the end they secure the main object-the perpetuity of the existing plan of nature-if they obstruct Mr Darwin's scheme of fluctuation and mutation, and allow no scope Natural Selection to alter plants and animals, then all is obtained that is wanted, and the theory has gained nothing.

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This may be a very strange arrangement' to Mr Darwin, but it is a very efficient one; and if, when endeavouring to take a short cut across the country, we go over hedges and fences where we have no right to go, and push on trespassing till we come to a high wall, with the prohibitory words in large letters, No Road this way'what are we to do? It may be a very strange arrangement to balk us thus, but we have no alternative but to go back again, and plod on in the beaten path on the old High Road.

In the mean while we should remember, that all this voluntary perplexity about varieties and species of plant is the result of horticultural experiments, in which na

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* M. Naudin says: 'There exist in the gardens two species of Petunias perfectly characterized. The one with white flowers (P. nyctaginiflora), the other with purple flowers (P. violacea), without any known varieties that have yet been recognized, but crossing with facility, and thereby producing hybrids also fertile amongst one another. In the first generation, all the hybrids resemble one another; in the second, they are diversified in the most remarkable manner-the one returning to the white species, the other to the purple, and a large number marking shades between the two. If these varieties are fertilized artificially—as is practised by some gardeners -they obtain a third generation more motley still (encore plus bigarrée), and in continuing this procedure they arrive at extreme variations, sometimes monstrous, which the prevailing fashion considers as perfection. That which is essential to remark here, is that these variations are

ture takes no part. We, from motives of curiosity, try our hand in crossing flowers, and produce some temporary innovations, but they are indeed ephemeral products; and all new varieties, whether hybrids or otherwise, if left to themselves, would speedily disappear, and be effaced from existence. As it is with our new plants, so is it with the varieties of our domestic animals,—by constantly watching and training them, and directing their sexual unions, we keep up or improve certain breeds; but all is artifice and contrivance, and has established no abiding novelty.

Let man be withdrawn from the scene, and at the end of two or three centuries, where would be our breeds, our varieties, our races amongst animals, and where our curiosities in the botanical world? The creatures would all have returned to the original wild type, the dainties of the garden and the grove would have merged in nature's original plan, and all our quibbles and mystifications about species and variety would be swept away in the undisturbed and majestic march of the Grand Design.

This chapter must not be dismissed without drawing attention to the fact that in the question of mutability of species, by which it is pretended that all forms of life have been brought into existence, the Theory of Transmutation stands confronted with creation, which Mr Darwin, to put on a level with his own system, calls a Theory '* also.

purely individual, and without any element of fixedness. From the sowing of their seeds new forms arise, which have as little resemblance to one another as they have to the forms which produced them.' On this, M. Trémaux, himself a transmutationist, observes: 'It is hereby evident that individual hybrid variations return to one or other of the species from which they sprung, when left to themselves.'

* 'How inexplicable on the Theory of Creation is the variable appearance of stripes on the shoulders and legs of the horse genus' (506, also 507).

The whole question in dispute is simply this: have plants and animals been created with a suitable organization to occupy their places assigned to them in nature, or have they been progressively developed by accidental changes from antecedent forms, and do they exhibit their characters and their habits, and hold their position as chance has brought about, without any design?

In the ordinary way of thinking, it is held that the power and wisdom of the Creator designed and made organic beings for certain objects; and in the inimitable wisdom, skill, and beauty of the contrivances by which this has been effected, we see indisputable proofs of the high source of the general design. When the law of species is taken into the account, and the partitions of life are noted to be safe within a barrier which cannot be transgressed, we see so clearly an additional proof of the origin of the design, that we are disposed to look on this law as the very sceptre of the Creator-as visible evidence that the Supreme Intelligence which invented all the varieties of life, has resolved that the original plan should be maintained in all its purity, and that the boundary lines of separation should be perpetually respected. We see the result; organic beings do not change, the plan of creation is maintained.

This very plain and palpable fact, the Theory has to meet as well as it can; and therefore we have heard Mr Darwin say that he does not think that these singular rules indicate that species has been endowed with sterility, simply to prevent their being confounded in nature.'

Nevertheless, almost all naturalists have thought so; and let them think as they like, the effect of sterility and the natural aversion to the mixture of species is indisputable. That these singular rules' have the effect of

maintaining the order of nature is certain. For the corollary we need not be very solicitous, as it cannot be averted.

When, however, Mr Darwin thus meets the question of design, he is wont to object that we seek to hide our ignorance by taking refuge in something beyond our comprehension. Thus, in the case of sterility, he tells us that we 'slur it over-because we look on it as a special endowment beyond our reasoning powers' (268). After such a rebuke we naturally expect to receive a clear solution of the mystery from his superior reasoning powers, which disdain the acknowledgment of ignorance. What, then, is the explanation? He simply tells us what we knew before, and by many varied phrases iterates facts acknowledged already. He tells us there are constitutional differences incomprehensible to us, and confined to the reproductive system' (280). That in pure species the sexual elements are perfect, and in hybrids imperfect' (268). That sterility, both of first crosses and of hybrids, is simply incidental, or dependent on unknown differences, chiefly in the reproductive system of the species which are crossed (283). That as the capacity of one species or variety of trees to take on another is incidental on generally unknown differences in their vegetable system, so, in crossing, the greater or less facility of one species to unite with another is incidental or unknown differences in their reproductive systems (299). That in hybridizing gallinaceous birds, the early death of the embryo in the egg is a frequent cause of sterility in first crosses; and this Mr Darwin says he was 'unwilling to believe' till convinced of the fact (286). That in unnatural crossings the organization has been dis

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