the hand and of the valves in the veins is just as
valid now, in individuals produced through natural
generation, as it would have been in the case of the
first man, supernaturally created. Why not, then,
just as good even on the supposition of the descent
of men from Chimpanzees and Gorillas, since those
animals possess these same contrivances? Or, to
take a more supposable case: If the argument
from structure to design is convincing when drawn
from a particular animal, say a Newfoundland dog,
and is not weakened by the knowledge that this dog
came from similar parents, would it be at all weakened,
if, in tracing his genealogy, it were ascertained
that he was a remote descendant of the mastiff or
some other breed, or that both these and other breeds
came (as is suspected) from some wolf? If not,
how is the argument for design in the structure of
our particular dog affected by the supposition that
his wolfish progenitor came from a post-tertiary wolf,
perhaps less unlike an existing one than the dog in
question is from some other of the numerous existing
races of dogs, and that this post-tertiary came from
an equally or more different tertiary wolf? And
if the argument from structure to design is not invalidated
by our present knowledge that our individual dog was
developed from a single organic cell, how is it invalidated
by the supposition of an analogous natural descent,
through a long line of connected forms, from such a
cell, or from some simple animal, existing ages before
there were any dogs? Again, suppose we have two
well-known and very decidedly different animals or
plants, A and D, both presenting, in their structure
and in their adaptations to the conditions of existence,
as valid and clear evidence of design as any animal
or plant ever presented: suppose we have now
discovered two intermediate species, B and C, which
make up a series with equable differences from A to
D. Is the proof of design or final cause in A and
D, whatever it amounted to, at all weakened by the
discovered intermediate forms? Rather does not
the proof extend to the intermediate species, and go
to show that all four were equally designed?
Suppose, now, the number of intermediate forms to
be much increased, and therefore the gradations to
be closer yet, as close as those between the various
sorts of dogs, or races of men, or of horned cattle:
would the evidence of design, as shown in the structure
of any of the members of the series, be any weaker
than it was in the case of A and D? Whoever contends
that it would be should likewise maintain that the
origination of individuals by generation is incompatible
with design, and so take a consistent atheistical
view of Nature. Perhaps we might all have confidently
thought so, antecedently to experience of the fact
of reproduction. Let our experience teach us
wisdom.