ficient to raise
both forms to the rank of species. Hereafter we shall be compelled to
acknowledge that the only distinction between species and well-marked
varieties is, that the latter are known, or believed, to be connected
at the present day by intermediate gradations, whereas species
were formerly thus connected. Hence, without quite rejecting the
consideration of the present existence of intermediate gradations
between any two forms, we shall be led to weigh more carefully and to
value higher the actual amount of difference between them. It is quite
possible that forms now generally acknowledged to be merely varieties
may hereafter be thought worthy of specific names, as with the primrose
and cowslip; and in this case scientific and common language will come
into accordance. In short, we shall have to treat species in the same
manner as those naturalists treat genera, who admit that genera are
merely artificial combinations made for convenience. This may not be a
cheering prospect; but we shall at least be freed from the vain search
for the undiscovered and undiscoverable essence of the term species.

The other and more general departments of natural history will rise
greatly in interest. The terms used by naturalists of affinity,
relationship, community of type, paternity, morphology, adaptive
characters, rudimentary and aborted organs, etc., will cease to be
metaphorical, and will have a plain signification. When we no longer
look at an organic being as a savage looks at a ship, as at something
wholly beyond his comprehension; when we regard every production of
nature as one which has had a history; when we contemplate every complex
structure and instinct as the summing up of many contrivances, each
useful to the possessor, nearly in the same way as when we look at
any great mechanical invention as the summing up of the labour, the
experience, the reason, and even the blunders of numerous workmen; when
we thus view each organic being, how far more interesting, I speak from
experience, will the study of natural history become!

A grand and almost untrodden field of inquiry will be opened, on the
causes and laws of variation, on correlation of growth, on the effects
of use and disuse, on the direct action of external conditions, and so
forth. The study of domestic productions will rise immensely in value.
A new variety raised by man will be a far more important and interesting
subject for study than one more spec