Origin of Species Variorum

→ — the water-hen 1872

yet the water-hen 1859 1860

— yet the water-hen 1861

—the water-hen and landrail are members of this order, yet the first 1866 1869

→ and landrail are members of this order, yet the first is 1872

is 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869

→ diving Hymenoptera, and petrels 1866 1869 1872

petrels 1859 1860 1861

→ populi , 1861 1872

populi, 1866 1869

→ complex and perfect can be shown to exist, 1872

very imperfect and simple, 1859 1860 1861

imperfect and simple, 1866

perfect and complex, 1869

→ as is certainly the case; 1872

can be shown to exist; 1859 1860 1861 1866

can be shown to exist, 1869

→ if 1859 1860 1861 1866 1872

as is certainly the case; if 1869

→ ever varies 1872

does vary ever so slightly, 1859 1860 1861

does vary ever so slightly 1866

ever slightly varies, 1869

→ should be 1872

or modification in the organ be ever 1859 1860 1861 1866

should ever be 1869

for walking over swamps and floating

plants,

plants?

→— the water-hen →and landrail are members of this order, yet the first is nearly as aquatic as the

coot;

coot,

and the

landrail

second

nearly as terrestrial as the quail or partridge. In such cases, and many others could be given, habits have changed without a corresponding change of structure. The webbed feet of the upland goose may be said to have become

rudimentary

almost rudimentary

in function, though not in structure. In the frigate-bird, the

deeply-scooped

deeply scooped

membrane between the toes shows that structure has begun to change.

He who believes in separate and innumerable acts of creation

will

may

say, that in these cases it has pleased the Creator to cause a being of one type to take the place of one

belonging to

another type; but this seems to me only

restating

re- stating

re-stating

the fact in dignified language. He who believes in the struggle for existence and in the principle of natural selection, will acknowledge that every organic being is constantly endeavouring to increase in numbers; and that if any one

being vary

varies

being varies

ever so little, either in habits or structure, and thus

gain

gains

an advantage over some other inhabitant of the

country,

same country,

it will seize on the place of that inhabitant, however different

that

may be from its own place. Hence it will cause him no surprise that there should be geese and frigate-birds with webbed feet,

either

....

living on the dry land

or most

and

rarely alighting on the water; that there should be long-toed

corncrakes

corncrakes,

living in meadows instead of in swamps; that there should be woodpeckers where

not

hardly

a tree grows; that there should be diving

thrushes,

thrushes

and →diving Hymenoptera, and petrels with the habits of auks.

Organs

extreme

perfection

Perfection

and

complication .—

complication. —

Complication .

Complication.

To suppose that the

eye,

eye

with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest

possible

....

degree. When it was first said that the sun stood still and the world turned round, the common sense of mankind declared the doctrine false; but the old saying of Vox → populi , vox

Dei,

Dei ,

as every philosopher knows,

can never

cannot

be trusted in science.

Yet

....

reason

Reason

tells me, that if numerous gradations from

perfect

imperfect

simple

and

complex

simple

imperfect

eye to one →complex and perfect can be shown to exist, each grade being useful to its possessor, →as is certainly the case; →if further, the eye →ever varies and the variations be inherited,

which

certainly

likewise certainly

the case; and if

any

such

variation

variations

→should be useful to

any

animal under changing conditions of life, then the difficulty of believing that a