Zomer 2009 no. 67
55
The Dutch Dickensian Volume XXIX
296 Puiv 7,1»] ALL THE YE."
of an "if" and a "suppose," tlierc is little
difficulty in explaining anything.
The occasional habit of birds laying their
eggs in other birds' nests, either of the same
j or of a distinct species, is not very uncommon
with the Gallinaceseit is frequent with do
mestic hensand this, perhaps, explains the
origin of a singular instinct in the allied group
of ostriches, for several hen ostriches, at least
in the ease of the American species, unite and lay,
i first a few eggs in one nest, and then the rest in
another, and these are hatched by the males.
This instinct may probably be accounted for
by the fact of the hens laying a large number
of eggs, but, as in the case of the cuckoo, at
intervals of two or three days. The instinct,
however, of the American ostrich lias not as
yet been perfectedfor a surprising number of
eggs lie strewed over the plains, so that in one
day's hunting Mr. Darwin himself picked up no
less than twenty lost and wasted eggs.
Many bc.es are parasitic, and always lay their
eggs in the nests of bees of other kinds. This
case is more remarkable than that of the
cuckoo, for these bees have not only their
instincts, but their structure also, modified in
accordance with their parasitic habits they do
ji not possess the pollen-collecting apparatus
i which would be necessary if they had to store
1 food lor their own young. Some species like
wise of Sphegida* (wasp-like insects) are para-
I sitic on other speciesand M. Fabre has lately
shown good reason for believing that although
j the Tachytes nigia generally makes its own
1 burrow and stores it with paralysed prey for i ts
own larvae to feed on, yet that when this insect
finds a burrow already made and stored by an
ther sphcx, it takes advantage of the prize, and
j becomes, for the occasion, parasitic. In this case,
as with the supposed case of t he cuckoo, Mr.
Darwin can see no difficulty in Natural Selection
making an occasional habit permanent, f of ad
vantage to the species, and if the insect whose
i nest and stored food are thus feloniously appro-
printed, be not thus exterminated.
Such ideas are opposed to the belief of philo-
I sopherswho hold that the various speciesof plants
and animals have been independently created, and
have been purposely fitted and adapted to the
place in creation which they were intended to oc-
cupy by an Overruling Intelligencefor it is
maintained that the more complex organs and in
stincts have been perfected, not at once in the
first-created individual, by the Hand of the
Maker, hut by the accumulation of innumerable
slight variations, each good for the individual
possessor for the time being, during an exceed
ingly long succession of individuals from genera
tion to generation.
The result is asserted to have been effected in
this waythere can be no doubt that, species
give rise t o minor varietiesfor no two indi
viduals are exactly alike, hut may be easily dis
tinguished one from the other. A shepherd
knows every sheep in his flock, a huntsman every
iiound in his pack, calling it by namea busy
body knows every face in his village and its
R ROUND. [Conductedby j!
neighbourhood; probably a bee knows every j
bee belonging to its hire. Variations arc often 1
hereditary; red-haired parents will probably j
have a red-haired family. Varieties of talent i
and bodily strength are hereditarydiseases
and defects are hereditary, as is every day seen
with consumption and deafness. If any animal j
or plant in a state of nature be highly useful to I
man, or from any cause closely attract his atten-
lion, varieties of it will almost universally be j
found recorded. Now, individual differences
are considered by Mr. Darwin as the first step
towards such slight, varieties as are barely
thought worth mentioning in works on natural
historyvarieties which arc in any degree more j
distinct and permanent, are steps leading to
more strongly marked and more permanent va- j
rieties; and these latter lead to sub-species,
and to species. In short, all organised and
animated forms are in a state of passage from
one stage of difference to another; all nature is
moving insensibly forwards up the slope of one
vast sliding scalethe world is a never-ceasing
workshop for the process of manufacturing new j
species of plants and animals.
Mr. Darwin believes that any well-marked i
variety may be called an incipient speciesand j
herein lies the whole turning-point, the corner- j
stone,perhaps the stumbling-block, of his System
of Naturegrant him that, and nothing can
stop the career of his theorygive him that
inch, and he may take, not an el], but a hundred
thousand miles of philosophical territory. Con
scious of the importance of his postulate, ho
candidly observes Whether this belief" (that
varieties arc incipient species) be justifiable,
must be judged of by the general weight of the
several facts and views given throughout, this j
work." Achilles is a mighty man, hut unfortu
nately he is afflicted with a vulnerable heel.
Elsewhere lie says It lias often been asserted,
hut the assertion is quite incapable of proof,
that the amount of variation under nature is a
strictly limited quantity." But there's the rub. j
A mathematical demonstration may he impos
sible but certain observers and experimenters
say that their experiments and observations
strongly tend to the belief that varieties do not
vary beyond certain limits; that is the impres
sion which their minds receive from what they
see; just as Mr. Darwin's observations strongly
tend to make him view all existing beings, not
as special creations, hut as the lineal descendants
of some few beings which lived long before the
first bed of the Silurian system was deposited,
and to conclude thence that (as ail the living
forms of life are the lineal descendants of those
which lived long before the Silurian epoch) we
may feel certain that the ordinary succession by
generation has never once been broken, that no
cataclysm has desolated the whole world, and
that we may look with some confidence to a
secure future of equally inappreciable length.
But no human intellect, unaided by revelation,
is at present able to make such conclusions as
these matters either of positive proof or of
positive refutation. They must remain a ques-
