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made for convenience. This may not be a cheering prospect; but we shall at least be freed from the vain search for the undiscovered and undiscoverable essence of the term species.
The other and more general departments of natural history will rise greatly in interest. The terms used by
naturalists,
naturalists
of affinity, relationship, community of type, paternity, morphology, adaptive characters, rudimentary and aborted organs, &c., will cease to be metaphorical, and will have a plain signification. When we no longer look at an organic being as a savage looks at a ship, as
at
at
something wholly beyond his comprehension; when we regard every production of nature as one which has had a
long history;
history;
when we contemplate every complex structure and instinct as the summing up of many contrivances, each useful to the possessor,
nearly
nearly
in the same way as when we look at any great mechanical invention
is
as
the summing up of the labour, the experience, the reason, and even the blunders of numerous workmen; when we thus view each organic being, how far more
interesting,—
interesting,
I speak from
experience,— will
experience,— does
experience, will
the study of natural history become!
A grand and almost untrodden field of inquiry will be opened, on the causes and laws of variation, on
correlation,
correlation
of growth,
of growth,
on the effects of use and disuse, on the direct action of external conditions, and so forth. The study of domestic productions will rise immensely in value. A new variety raised by man will be a
far
....
more important and interesting subject for study than one more species added to the infinitude of already recorded species. Our classifications will come to be, as far as they can be so made, genealogies; and will then truly give what may be called the plan of creation. The rules for classifying will no doubt become simpler when we have a definite object in view. We possess no