... Many more of
these modifications should we behold, and more complete series of
them, had we a view of all the forms which have ceased to live.
The great gaps that exist ... would be softened down by
intermediate groups, and the whole organic world would be seen to
be an unbroken and harmonious system.
The article, in which we can see a great generalisation struggling to be
born, ends thus:
It has now been shown, though most briefly and imperfectly, how
the law that "every species has come into existence coincident
both in time and space with a pre-existing closely allied
species," connects together and renders intelligible a vast number
of independent and hitherto unexplained facts. The natural system
of arrangement of organic beings, their geographical distribution,
their geological sequence, the phenomena of representative and
substituted groups in all their modifications, and the most
singular peculiarities of anatomical structure, are all explained
and illustrated by it, in perfect accordance with the vast mass of
facts which the researches of modern naturalists have brought
together, and, it is believed, not materially opposed to any of
them.
Pages:
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167