| → these same 1861 1866 1869 |
| some of these same 1872 |
|
| → under the present state of science, 1861 1866 |
| OMIT 1869 1872 |
|
| → creation of 1861 1866 |
| appearance or creation of only 1869 1872 |
|
| → or of 1861 1866 |
| of life, or of 1869 1872 |
|
| ↑ 1 blocks not present in 1861 1866 1869 1872; present in 1859 1860 |
| Although naturalists very properly demand a full explanation of every difficulty from those who believe in the mutability of species, on their own side they ignore the whole subject of the first appearance of species in what they consider reverent silence.
|
|
| → fall away 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869 |
| in favour of community of descent become fewer in number and less 1872 |
|
| → groups. 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869 |
|
groups. Fossil remains sometimes tend to fill up very wide intervals between existing orders.
1872 |
|
| → an embryonic 1859 1860 1861 1866 |
| a very early 1869 1872 |
|
| → class. 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869 |
| great class or kingdom. 1872 |
|
|
the
womb? Undoubtedly
→these same
questions cannot be answered by those
→under the present state of science,
believe in the
→creation of
a few
→or of
some one form
It has been
by several authors that it is as easy to believe in the creation of a
million beings as of one; but Maupertuis'
axiom "of least action" leads the mind more willingly to admit the smaller number; and certainly we ought not to believe that innumerable beings within each great class have been created with plain, but deceptive, marks of descent from a single parent. ↑ |
|
| It may be asked how far I extend the doctrine of the modification of species. The question is difficult to answer, because the more distinct the forms are which we
consider, by so much the arguments
→fall away
in force. But some arguments of the greatest weight extend very far. All the members of whole classes
connected together by
of affinities, and all can be
on the same principle, in groups
to
→groups. Fossil remains sometimes tend to fill up very wide intervals between existing orders. Organs in a rudimentary condition plainly show that an early progenitor had the organ in a fully developed
and this in some
implies an enormous amount of modification in the descendants. Throughout whole classes various structures are formed on the same pattern, and at
→an embryonic
age the
closely resemble each other. Therefore I cannot doubt that the theory of descent with modification embraces all the members of the same
→class. I believe that animals
descended from at most only four or five progenitors, and plants from an equal or lesser number. |
|
| Analogy would lead me one step
namely, to the belief that all animals and plants
descended
|
