enjoyed by their progenitors, time alone might then be supposed
sufficient to bring about any amount of metamorphosis. The gratuitous
assumption, therefore, of a point so vital to the theory of
transmutation, was unpardonable on the part of its advocate.

But to proceed with the system: it being assumed as an undoubted fact,
that a change of external circumstances may cause one organ to become
entirely obsolete, and a new one to be developed, such as never before
belonged to the species, the following proposition is announced, which,
however staggering and absurd it may seem, is logically deduced from the
assumed premises. It is not the organs, or, in other words, the nature
and form of the parts of the body of an animal, which have given rise to
its habits, and its particular faculties; but, on the contrary, its
habits, its manner of living, and those of its progenitors, have in the
course of time determined the form of its body, the number and condition
of its organs--in short, the faculties which it enjoys. Thus otters,
beavers, waterfowl, turtles, and frogs, were not made web-footed in
order that they might swim; but their wants having attracted them to the
water in search of prey, they stretched out the toes of their feet to
strike the water and move rapidly along its surface. By the repeated
stretching of their toes, the skin which united them at the base
acquired a habit of extension, until, in the course of time, the broad
membranes which now connect their extremities were formed.

In like manner, the antelope and the gazelle were not endowed with light
agile forms, in order that they might escape by flight from carnivorous
animals; but, having been exposed to the danger of being devoured by
lions, tigers, and other beasts of prey, they were compelled to exert
themselves in running with great celerity; a habit which, in the course
of many generations, gave rise to the peculiar slenderness of their
legs, and the agility and elegance of their forms.

The camelopard was not gifted with a long flexible neck because it was
destined to live in the interior of Africa, where the soil was arid and
devoid of herbage; but, being reduced by the nature of that country to
support itself on the foliage of lofty trees, it contracted a habit of
stretching itself up to reach the high boughs, until its neck became so
elongated that it could raise its head to the height of twenty feet
above the ground.

Another line of argument