liest secondary epoch were similar in general structure to
those now living, but exhibit slight differences in their vertebrae,
nasal passages, and one or two other points. The guinea-pig has teeth
which are shed before it is born, and hence can never subserve the
masticatory purpose for which they seem contrived, and, in like manner,
the female dugong has tusks which never cut the gum. All the members
of the same great group run through similar conditions in their
development, and all their parts, in the adult state, are arranged
according to the same plan. Man is more like a gorilla than a gorilla is
like a lemur. Such are a few, taken at random, among the multitudes
of similar facts which modern research has established; but when the
student seeks for an explanation of them from the supporters of the
received hypothesis of the origin of species, the reply he receives
is, in substance, of Oriental simplicity and brevity--"Mashallah! it
so pleases God!" There are different species on opposite sides of the
isthmus of Panama, because they were created different on the two sides.
The pliocene mammals are like the existing ones, because such was the
plan of creation; and we find rudimental organs and similarity of plan,
because it has pleased the Creator to set before Himself a "divine
exemplar or archetype," and to copy it in His works; and somewhat
ill, those who hold this view imply, in some of them. That such verbal
hocus-pocus should be received as science will one day be regarded as
evidence of the low state of intelligence in the nineteenth century,
just as we amuse ourselves with the phraseology about Nature's
abhorrence of a vacuum, wherewith Torricelli's compatriots were
satisfied to explain the rise of water in a pump. And be it recollected
that this sort of satisfaction works not only negative but positive ill,
by discouraging inquiry, and so depriving man of the usufruct of one of
the most fertile fields of his great patrimony, Nature.

The objections to the doctrine of the origin of species by special
creation which have been detailed, must have occurred, with more or
less force, to the mind of every one who has seriously and independently
considered the subject. It is therefore no wonder that, from time to
time, this hypothesis should have been met by counter hypotheses, all as
well, and some better founded than itself; and it is curious to remark
that the inventors of the opposing views seem to have been led