lost (as Koelreuter in two tobacco species almost
sterile together), so that the Creationist in the case of a species,
must believe that one act of creation is absorbed into another!

{177} Between the lines occur the words:--"Species vary according
to same general laws as varieties; they cross according to same
laws."

{178} "A cross with a bull-dog has affected for many generations
the courage and obstinacy of greyhounds," _Origin_, Ed. i. p. 214,
vi. p. 327.

{Illustration: Facsimile of the original manuscript of the paragraph on
p. 50.}

CONCLUSION.

Such are my reasons for believing that specific forms are not immutable.
The affinity of different groups, the unity of types of structure, the
representative forms through which foetus passes, the metamorphosis of
organs, the abortion of others cease to be metaphorical expressions and
become intelligible facts. We no longer look <an> on animal as a savage does
at a ship{179}, or other great work of art, as a thing wholly beyond
comprehension, but we feel far more interest in examining it. How
interesting is every instinct, when we speculate on their origin as an
hereditary or congenital habit or produced by the selection of
individuals differing slightly from their parents. We must look at every
complicated mechanism and instinct, as the summary of a long history,
<as the summing up> of{180} useful contrivances, much like a work of art.
How interesting does the distribution of all animals become, as throwing
light on ancient geography. [We see some seas bridged over.] Geology
loses in its glory from the imperfection of its archives{181}, but how
does it gain in the immensity of the periods of its formations and of
the gaps separating these formations. There is much grandeur in looking
at the existing animals either as the lineal descendants of the forms
buried under thousand feet of matter, or as the coheirs of some still
more ancient ancestor. It accords with what we know of the law impressed
on matter by the Creator, that the creation and extinction of forms,
like the birth and death of individuals should be the effect of
secondary [laws] means{182}. It is derogatory that the Creator of
countless systems of worlds should have created each of the myriads of
creeping parasites and [slimy] worms which have swarmed each day of life
on land and water <on> [this] one globe. We cease being astonished, however
much we may deplore, that a