able to pursue their labours as at
present; but they will not be incessantly haunted by the shadowy doubt
whether this or that form be a true species. This, I feel sure, and I
speak after experience, will be no slight relief. The endless disputes
whether or not some fifty species of British brambles are good species
will cease." _Origin_, 6th edit. (1882), p. 425. True they have ceased
to attract the attention of those who lead opinion, but anyone who
will turn to the literature of systematics will find that they have
not ceased in any other sense. Should there not be something
disquieting in the fact that among the workers who come most into
contact with specific differences, are to be found the only men who
have failed to be persuaded of the unreality of those differences?]

[Footnote 64: 6th edit. pp. 109 and 401. See Butler, _Essays on Life,
Art, and Science_, p. 265, reprinted 1908, and _Evolution, Old and
New_, chap. XXII. (2nd edit.), 1882.]

[Footnote 65: W. Lawrence was one of the few who consistently
maintained the contrary opinion. Prichard, who previously had
expressed himself in the same sense, does not, I believe, repeat these
views in his later writings, and there are signs that he came to
believe in the transmission of acquired habits. See Lawrence, _Lect.
Physiol._ 1823, pp. 436-437, 447. Prichard, Edin. Inaug. Disp. 1808
[not seen by me], quoted _ibid._ and _Nat. Hist. Man_, 1843, pp. 34
f.]

[Footnote 66: It is interesting to see how nearly Butler was led by
natural penetration, and from absolutely opposite conclusions, back to
this underlying truth: "So that each ovum when impregnate should be
considered not as descended from its ancestors, but as being a
continuation of the personality of every ovum in the chain of its
ancestry, which every ovum _it actually is_ quite as truly as the
octogenarian _is_ the same identity with the ovum from which he has
been developed. This process cannot stop short of the primordial cell,
which again will probably turn out to be but a brief resting-place. We
therefore prove each one of us to _be actually_ the primordial cell
which never died nor dies, but has differentiated itself into the life
of the world, all living beings whatever, being one with it and
members one of another," _Life and Habit_, 1878, p. 86.]

[Footnote 67: This view is no doubt contrary to the received opinion.
I am however interested to see it lately maintained by Driesch
(_Science and Phi