Sterility of Hybrids. The immutability of species is stamped on the very face of nature. What the letters of a book would be if all were thrown in confu- sion, the genera and species of plants and animals would be, if they were, as Darwin's theory assumes, in a state of constant variation, and that in every possible direction. All line-marks would be oblit- erated, and the thoughts of God, as species have been called, would be obliterated from his works. To prevent this confusion of " kind," it has been established as a law of nature that animals of different " kinds " cannot mingle and produce something differ- ent from either parent, to be again mingled and confused with other animals of a still different kind. In other words, it is a law of nature, and therefore a law of God, that hybrids should be sterile. This fact Mr. Darwin does not deny. Neither does he deny the weight of the argument derived from it against his theory. He only, as in the cases already mentioned, endeavours to account for the fact. Connecting links between species are missing ; but they may have perished. Hybrids are sterile ; but that may be accounted for in some other way without assuming that it was designed to secure the permanence of species. When a great fact in nature is found to secure a most important end in nature, it is fair to infer that it was designed to accomplish that end, and con- sequently that end is not to be overlooked or denied.
Creographical Distribution.
Mr. Darwin is equally candid in reference to another objection to his doctrine. " Turning to geographical distribution," he says,^ " the difficulties encountered on the theory of descent with modifi- cation are serious enough. All the individuals of the same species, and all the species of the same genus, or even higher group, must have descended from common parents ; and therefore, in however distant and isolated parts of the world they may now be found, they must in the course of successive generations have travelled from some one point to all the others." When it is remembered that this is true of the mollusks and Crustacea, animals whose power of locomotion is very limited, this almost universal distribution from one centre would seem to ba an impossibility. Darwin's answer to this is the same as to the difficulties already mentioned. He throws himself on the possibilities of unlimited duration. Nobody can tell what may have happened during the untold ages of the 1 Origin of Species, p. 547.
30 PART n. ch. I. — origin of man.
past. " Looking to geographical distribution," he says, " if we admit that there has been through the long course of ages much migration from one part of the world to another, owing to former climatal and geographical changes and to the many occasional and unknown means of dispersal, then we can undex'stand, on the the- ory of descent with modification, most of the great leading facts in distribution." ^ Every one must see how inconclusive is all such reasoning. If we admit that many unknown things may have happened in the boundless past, then we can understand most, but not all, of the facts which stand opposed to the theory of the deri- vation of species. The same remark may be made in reference to the constant appeal to the unknown effects of unlimited durations. " The chief cause," says Mr. Darwin, " of our natural unwilling- ness to admit that one species has given birth to other and distinct species, is that we are always slow in admitting any great change
of which we do not see the steps The mind cannot possibly
grasp the full meaning of the term of even ten million years ; it cannot add up and perceive the full effects of many slight variations accumulated during an almost infinite number of generations." ^ If we say that the ape during the historic period extending over thousands of years has not made the slightest approximation towards becoming a man, we are told. Ah ! but you do not know what lu> will do in ten millions of years. To which it is a sufficient reply to ask, How much is ten million times nothing ?
Ordinary men reject this Darwinian theory with indignation as well as with decision, not only because it calls upon them to acce]>t the possible as demonstrably true, but because it ascribes to blind, unintelligent causes the wonders of purpose and design Avhich tlie world everywhere exhibits ; and because it effectually banishts God from his works. To such men it is a satisfaction to know that the theory is rejected on scientific grounds by the great majority of scientific men. Mr. Darwin himself says, " The several diffi- culties here discussed, namely — that, though we find in our geo- logical formations many links between the species which now exist and which formerly existed, we do not find infinitely numerous line transitional forms closely joining them all together ; the sudden manner in which several whole groups of species first appear in our European formations ; the almost entire absence, as at present known, of formations rich in fossils, beneath the Cambrian strata, — are all undoubtedly of the most serious nature. We see this in the fact that the most eminent palaeontologists, namely, Cuvier, 1 Origin of Species, p. 664. 2 jud. p. 570.