ORIGIN OF SPECIES BY NATURAL SELECTION. I PROPOSE in this Paper to state, in so far as concerns the natural history of Man, such objections to the Darwinian theory as have occurred to me, and which oblige me to refuse my belief in opinions which have received the assent of many eminent men of science. In doing so, I hope I shall be found to state them in those terms of respect and deference which are justly due to them and more especially to the ingenious, accomplished, and candid author of the theory. The Darwinian theory was suggested by the well-known difficulty of determining in plants and animals what it is that constitutes a species when many species so closely resemble others as to seem but mere varieties. Hence it has been inferred that, in the course of countless ages, a small number of crude types, through a process of beneficial natural variations, have been transmuted into the many species into which the organic world is now divided. The object of the theory is to demonstrate that the whole organic creation did not, as geological evidence would seem to show, originate in a series of cataclysms, but, on the contrary, had its source in causes gradually and continuously in action, and differing in no respect from those at present in actual operation. This view supposes all organised beings to be derived from a few, or even from one progenitor or prototype. 'I cannot doubt,' says Mr. Darwin, 'that the theory of descent by gradation embraces all the members of the same class. I believe that animals have descended from |