| → long-enduring formations, 1869 |
| long-enduring fossiliferous formations 1859 1860 1861 1866 |
| enduring formations, rich in fossils, 1872 |
|
| → rich in fossils, depends 1869 |
| depends 1859 1860 1861 1866 1872 |
|
| → subsiding areas, 1869 1872 |
| areas whilst subsiding, 1859 1860 1861 1866 |
|
| → of time; consequently 1866 1869 1872 |
| consequently 1859 1860 1861 |
|
| → progenitors, and organisms already differing would vary in a different manner. 1869 |
| progenitors. 1859 1860 1861 1866 |
| progenitors; and organisms already differing would vary in a different manner. 1872 |
|
| → all our fantail pigeons were 1869 1872 |
| our fantail-pigeons were all 1859 1860 1861 1866 |
|
| → OMIT 1869 1872 |
| by striving during long ages for the same object, 1859 1860 1861 1866 |
|
|
In members of the same class the average amount of change, during long and equal periods of time, may, perhaps, be nearly the same; but as the accumulation of
→long-enduring formations,
→rich in fossils, depends
on great masses of sediment
deposited on
→subsiding areas,
our formations have been almost necessarily accumulated at wide and irregularly intermittent
→of time; consequently
the amount of organic change exhibited by the fossils embedded in consecutive formations is not equal. Each formation, on this view, does not mark a new and complete act of creation, but only an occasional scene, taken almost at hazard, in
slowly changing drama. |
|
| We can clearly understand why a species when once lost should never reappear, even if the very same conditions of life, organic and inorganic, should recur. For though the offspring of one species might be adapted (and no doubt this has occurred in innumerable instances) to fill the
place of another species in the economy of nature, and thus supplant it; yet the two forms— the old and the new— would not be identically the same; for both would almost certainly inherit different characters from their distinct
→progenitors, and organisms already differing would vary in a different manner. For instance, it is
possible, if
→all our fantail pigeons were
destroyed, that
→OMIT
might make a new breed hardly distinguishable from
present
but if the parent rock-pigeon were
destroyed, and
nature we have every reason to believe that
generally
supplanted and exterminated by
improved offspring, it is
that a
identical with the existing breed, could be raised from any other species of pigeon, or even from
other
|
