the existing races of animals have undergone no change as far back as it is possible to trace them. For this, we have the express authority of Baron Cuvier, whose judgment, on a point of this kind, will not be disputed.'

*

We have, therefore, every kind of evidence, positive and negative, for asserting, that neither in the vegetable nor in the animal creation is there any such thing as a natural state of progression; and that no race or species

* "I have endeavoured," he says, "to collect all the ancient documents respecting the forms of animals, and there are none equal to those furnished by the Egyptians, both in regard to their antiquity and abundance. They have not only left us representations of animals, but even their identical bodies embalmed and preserved in the catacombs.

66

"I have examined, with the greatest attention, the engraved figures of quadrupeds and birds upon the numerous obelisks brought from Egypt to ancient Rome, and all these figures, one with another, have a perfect resemblance to their intended objects, such as they are still in our days. On examining the copies made by Kirker and Zoega, we find, that without preserving every trait of the original in its utmost purity, they have yet given us figures which are easily recognized. We readily distinguish the ibis, the vulture, the owl, the falcon, the Egyptian goose, the lapwing, the land-rail, the asp, the Egyptian hare with its long ears, even the hippopotamus; and among the numerous remains engraved in the great work on Egypt, we sometimes observe the rarest animals, the algazel for instance, which was known in Europe only a few years ago. • My learned colleague, M. Geoffroy Saint Hilaire, convinced of the importance of this research, carefully collected, in the tombs and temples of Upper and Lower Egypt, as many mummies of animals as he could procure. He has brought home the mummies of cats, ibises, birds of prey, dogs, monkeys, crocodiles, and the head of a bull; and after the most attentive and detailed examination, not the smallest difference is to be perceived between these animals and those of the same species which we now.see, any more than between the human mummies and the skeletons of men of the present day. Some slight differences are discoverable between ibis and ibis, just as we now find differences in the descriptions of naturalists; but I have removed all doubts on that subject, in a memoir on the ibis of the ancient Egyptians, in which I have clearly shewn that this bird is precisely the same in all respects, at present, that it was in the days of the Pharaohs. I am aware that in these I only cite the monuments of two or three thousand years back; but this is the most remote antiquity to which we can resort in such a case."

*Theory of the Earth, ut sup. p. 123.

of either has ever, as a species, improved itself, or shewn any symptom of "possessing within itself the elements of improvement." Nature is constant, as Mr Combe is fond of observing, and her rules admit of no exceptions, and here there is no exception in any class of her productions; from the cedar in Lebanon to the hyssop that springeth out of the wall, or from the leviathan or elephant down to the lowest zoophite or coral insect, none have ever improved themselves, or given birth to improved or superior races. None of these has, as a species, been "constituted on the principle of a progressive system, as the acorn in reference to the oak."

I assume it, then, as a general law, that throughout the whole of organized existence, each species, at its first creation, receives a distinct and definite constitution, which it transmits, without the capacity of improvement, through all succeeding generations. This is not only consistent with all the known facts, but is likewise conformable to what might be expected a priori; for how could we suppose that the first of a species, coming directly from the hand of the Almighty workman, who contrived and formed all its different parts, could be less perfect than those which were produced afterwards by its means? The reverse of this appears at first sight much more probable; and accordingly, in certain cases, we find it to be true.

Although each species preserves its original type unaltered, and never can by possibility acquire qualities of a higher nature, yet individuals of the species, or even the whole individuals of a species, from accidental circumstances, from want of proper food, or from being placed in situations not in harmony with their nature,may be, and often have been found to degenerate, and fall below the original standard of their race. But there is throughout all animated nature a certain spring

and elasticity of constitution; and as, in the case of individuals, provision has been made for the repair of any injuries arising from wounds or diseases, by the operation of what is called the vis medicatrix naturæ, so in the case of a species degenerating from its pristine state, there is still a tendency in the race, when placed again in more favourable circumstances, to recover in some degree the ground it has lost: and, taking advantage of this, man is sometimes able, in the case of those animals whom he has subjected to his sway, by supplying them with improved food, by judicious crossing, by selecting the best individuals to be employed in propagation, and other methods, to raise the breed again in many respects nearly up to the original type. This is the true principle in what is called the improvement of breeds; not that man can, by any means whatever, mend the works of the Creator, or improve or complete what He has left imperfect, for

God never made his work for man to mend ;*

but, in races which have degenerated, man is able, by his intellect, to assist Nature in recovering the ground she has lost. In some cases, what is called an improvement is merely such in reference to the uses of the animal to man, and one set of qualities is encouraged at the expense of others. Thus, in the race-horse, the only quality looked to is swiftness, and the breed is propagated with a view to this alone. In cattle which are reared for food, the quality of fattening, or of speedily acquiring the greatest weight of flesh, is that to which the breeder directs his particular attention, disregarding in comparison the qualities of strength and activity, on which depends much of the perfection of the animal. But in all cases whatever, we may hold it as a rule, that, taking

* Dryden.

22 ANALOGIES OPPOSED TO A PROGRESSIVE SYSTEM.

any species as a whole, no means exist of improving it above a certain point. The original type remains, forming a boundary, beyond which it cannot pass. It may occasionally fall below it, and by proper means be raised up to it again, but it never can be raised higher; as water conducted in pipes may rise up to, but never above, the level of the original fountain.

Applying these facts to the subject in hand, I ask, Is it at all conformable to the analogy of nature, or to what reason would suggest or anticipate a priori, to suppose that man, the greatest, the noblest, the most important work of the Creator's power, should form the only exception to the above rule, and that he should at his first creation have been sent from the hands of his Maker in a rude and imperfect state, when all other productions of the same Almighty power were perfect from the first? Can it be supposed that less care would be bestowed upon the highest, than we see has been exercised upon the lowest of his creatures? Is it at all probable that man, the undoubted monarch of the terrestrial creation, has been sent into his own dominions naked, weak, and miserable, unfurnished with the proper marks and credentials of his authority, and left to struggle through all sorts of difficulties up to the proper sphere of his glory and his power?

If we are to argue from analogy, we are compelled to conclude, that man, like all the animals, was created with all his powers and faculties complete, and that, like them, he received at once a definite constitution, possessing all the perfection of which his nature is capable. This is the general law of creation, and no philosophical reason —— indeed, no reason at all—can be assigned why there should be an exception to the rule in this solitary instance.

III.-Evidence derived from history, and from ancient monuments, respecting the condition of the human race in the earliest ages.

In looking into history, and comparing the condition of man in past ages with what we find it at present, it is by no means my object to maintain that there has been no improvement in any part of the race. That such improvement has taken place in some nations, and is now proceeding, in regard to our moral and intellectual condition, are points which need not be disputed; but the true questions to be considered are, what is the nature and amount of the improvement observed, and to what causes is this improvement to be ascribed?

In regard to the first of these points, I may observe, that Mr Combe has no historical authority for saying that man, when first placed in the world, was in his general nature and faculties less perfect than at present. The traditions and the poetry of all antiquity are against this supposition, and give intimations neither few nor obscure of what has been called a golden age,-a period when the race was better and happier than in the ages which succeeded, and when the earth was without violence and without crime. I refer to these traditions not as proofs of the fact, but as proofs, at all events, that a very general belief of the fact prevailed at a very early period.

The histories of the most ancient empires in the world are decidedly against the hypothesis. The facts narrated by authentic historians respecting the Assyrian, the Median, and the Babylonian empires, completely negative the supposition that the races which composed them were inferior in powers either of body or mind, to the greatest nations which have since existed. Were there no other facts to evince this, the descriptions of their