| → OMIT 1861 1866 1869 1872 |
| we now see everywhere around us, and which 1859 1860 |
|
| → is 1861 1866 |
| seems to me 1859 1860 |
| under what is called the Natural System, is 1869 1872 |
|
| → make truer, 1860 1861 1866 1869 |
| make more strictly correct, 1859 |
| confirm, 1872 |
|
| → woodpecker, should have been created to 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869 |
| a woodpecker, should 1872 |
|
| → have been created with 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869 |
| possess 1872 |
|
| → thrush should have been created to 1859 1860 1861 1866 |
| thrush-like bird should have been created to 1869 |
| thrush-like bird should 1872 |
|
| → been created with 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869 |
| the 1872 |
|
|
But as all groups cannot thus
increasing in size, for the world would not hold them, the more dominant groups beat the less dominant. This tendency in the large groups to go on increasing in size and diverging in character, together with the
inevitable contingency of much extinction, explains the arrangement of all the forms of
in groups subordinate to groups, all within a few great classes, which
→OMIT
has prevailed throughout all time. This grand fact of the grouping of all organic beings
→is
utterly inexplicable on the theory of creation. |
|
| As natural selection acts solely by accumulating slight, successive, favourable variations, it can produce no great or sudden
it can act only by
short and slow steps.
the canon of "Natura non facit saltum," which every fresh addition to our knowledge tends to
→make truer,
is on this theory
intelligible. We can see why throughout nature the same general end is gained by an almost infinite diversity of
for every peculiarity when once acquired is long inherited, and structures already
in many
have to be adapted for the same general purpose. We
see why nature is prodigal in variety, though niggard in innovation. But why this should be a law of nature if each species
been
created, no man can explain. |
|
| Many other facts are, as it seems to me, explicable on this theory. How strange it is that a bird, under the form of
→woodpecker, should have been created to
prey on insects on the ground; that upland
which
or
swim, should
→have been created with
webbed feet; that a
→thrush should have been created to
dive and feed on sub-aquatic insects; and that a petrel should have
→been created with
and structure fitting it for the life of an
|
