ecies, are (as was said in the introductory
chapter) "peculiar congeries of characters or attributes, innate powers and
qualities, and a certain nature realized in individuals."

Thus, then, the "evolution of specific forms" means the actual
manifestation of special powers, or natures, which before were latent, in
such a successive manner that there is in some way a genetic relation
between posterior manifestations and those which preceded them.

On the special Darwinian hypothesis the manifestation of these forms is
determined simply by the survival of the fittest of many indefinite
variations.

On the hypothesis here advocated the manifestation is controlled and helped
by such survival, but depends on some unknown internal law or laws which
determine variation at special times and in special directions.

Professor Agassiz objects to the evolution theory, on the ground that
"species, genera, families, &c., exist as thoughts, individuals as
facts,"[288] and he offers the dilemma, "If species do not exist at all, as
the supporters of the transmutation theory maintain, how can they vary? and
if individuals alone exist, how can the differences which may be observed
among them prove the variability of species?"

But the supporter of "evolution" need only maintain that the several
"kinds" become manifested gradually by slight differences among the various
individual embodiments of one specific idea. He might reply to the dilemma
by saying, species do not exist _as species_ in the sense in which they are
said to vary (variation applying only to the concrete embodiments of {272}
the specific idea), and the evolution of species is demonstrated not by
individuals _as individuals_, but as embodiments of different specific
ideas.

Some persons seem to object to the term "creation" being applied to
evolution, because evolution is an "exceedingly slow and gradual process."
Now even if it were demonstrated that such is really the case, it may be
asked, what is "slow and gradual"? The terms are simply relative, and the
evolution of a specific form in ten thousand years would be instantaneous
to a being whose days were as hundreds of millions of years.

There are others again who are inclined absolutely to deny the existence of
species altogether, on the ground that their evolution is so gradual that
if we could see all the stages it would be impossible to say _when_ the
manifestation of the old specific form ceased and that of