Origin of Species Variorum

↑ 1 blocks not present in 1861 1866 1869 1872; present in 1859 1860

We meet with no such evidence, and this is the most obvious and forcible of the many objections which may be urged against my theory.

→ certainly they 1859 1860 1861 1866

this appearance is 1869 1872

→ Why do we not find great piles of strata beneath the Silurian system, stored with the remains 1859 1860 1861

Although we now know that organic beings appeared on this globe, at a period incalculably remote, long before the lowest bed 1866 1869 1872

→ progenitors 1859 1860 1861

Silurian system was deposited, why do we not find beneath this system great piles of strata stored with the remains 1866

Cambrian system was deposited, why do we not find beneath this system great piles of strata stored with the remains 1869 1872

→ Silurian groups of 1859 1860 1861

progenitors of the Silurian 1866

progenitors of the Cambrian 1869 1872

→ parent form of 1861

parent-form 1866 1869 1872

→ another 1861 1866

any one or more 1859 1860

another and modified 1869 1872

→ between their past and present states; and these many links we could hardly ever 1861 1866

between their past or parent and present states; and these many links we could hardly ever 1859 1860

and owing to the imperfection of the geological record, we have no just right to 1869 1872

→ discover, owing to the imperfection of the geological record. 1859 1860 1861 1866

find so many links. 1869 1872

→ as 1861 1866 1869

by many naturalists as 1872

between past and present species required on

the

theory; and this is the most obvious

~~and forcible~~

and forcible

of the many objections which may be urged against it. ↑ Why, again, do whole groups of allied species appear, though →certainly they often

false,

falsely

~~appear,~~

appear,

to have come in suddenly on the

successive

several

geological stages? →Why do we not find great piles of strata beneath the Silurian system, stored with the remains of the →progenitors of the →Silurian groups of fossils? For

certainly

....

the

theory,

theory

such strata must somewhere have been deposited at these ancient and utterly unknown epochs

the

worlds

world's

history.

I can answer these

question

questions

and

grave

....

objections only on the supposition that the geological record is far more imperfect than most geologists believe. It cannot be objected that there has not been time sufficient for any amount of organic change; for the lapse of time has been so great as to be utterly inappreciable by the human intellect. The number of specimens in all our museums is absolutely as nothing compared with the countless generations of countless species which

have certainly

certainly have

existed. The →parent form of

of any

any

two or more species would not be in all its characters directly intermediate between its modified offspring, any more than the rock-pigeon is directly intermediate in crop and tail between its

descendants,

descendants

the pouter and fantail pigeons. We should not be able to recognise a species as the parent of →another

species,

species

if we were to examine

them

the

both

two ever

ever

so closely, unless we

~~likewise~~

likewise

possessed

most

many

of the intermediate

links;

links

→between their past and present states; and these many links we could hardly ever expect to →discover, owing to the imperfection of the geological record. If two or three, or even more linking forms were discovered, they would simply be ranked →as so many new species, more especially if found in different geological sub-stages, let their differences be ever so