See page in:
1859
1860
1861
1866
1869
1872

Compare with:
1859
1860
1861
1866
1872

OMIT 1861 1866 1869 1872
we now see everywhere around us, and which 1859 1860

under what is called the Natural System, is 1869 1872
seems to me 1859 1860
is 1861 1866

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-like bird should have been created to 1869
thrush should have been created to 1859 1860 1861 1866
thrush-like bird should 1872

been created with 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869
the 1872

with the
almost
almost
inevitable contingency of much extinction, explains the arrangement of all the forms of
life
life,
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 under what is called the Natural System, 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
modifica- tions;
modification;
it can act only by
very
....
short and slow steps.
Hence,
Hence
the canon of "Natura non facit saltum," which every fresh addition to our knowledge tends to make truer, is on this theory
simply
....
intelligible. We can see why throughout nature the same general end is gained by an almost infinite diversity of
means,
means;
for every peculiarity when once acquired is long inherited, and structures already
modified
diversified
in many
different ways
ways
have to be adapted for the same general purpose. We
can
can,
plainly
in short,
see why nature is prodigal in variety, though niggard in innovation. But why this should be a law of nature if each species
has
had
been
in dependently
independently
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
geese,
geese
which
rarely
never
or
never
rarely
swim, should have been created with webbed feet; that a thrush-like bird should have been created to dive and feed on sub-aquatic insects; and that a petrel should have been created with
habits
the habits
and structure fitting it for the life of an
auk
auk!
or grebe!
....
and so
on
....
in endless other cases. But on the view of each species constantly trying to increase in number, with natural selection always ready to adapt the slowly varying descendants of each to any unoccupied or
ill-occupied
ill-occu- pied