in consequence of my knowledge of the general tenor of the researches
in which Mr. Darwin had been so long engaged; because I had the most
complete confidence in his perseverance, his knowledge, and, above all
things, his high-minded love of truth; and, moreover, because I found
that the better I became acquainted with the opinions of the best
naturalists regarding the vexed question of species, the less fixed
they seemed to be, and the more inclined they were to the hypothesis of
gradual modification, that I ventured to speak as strongly as I have
done in the final paragraphs of my discourse.

Thus, my daw having so many borrowed plumes, I see no impropriety in
making a tail to this brief paper by taking another handful of feathers
from Mr. Darwin; endeavouring to point out in a few words, in fact,
what, as I gather from the perusal of his book, his doctrines really
are, and on what sort of basis they rest. And I do this the more
willingly, as I observe that already the hastier sort of critics have
begun, not to review my friend's book, but to howl over it in a manner
which must tend greatly to distract the public mind.

No one will be better satisfied than I to see Mr. Darwin's book refuted,
if any person be competent to perform that feat; but I would suggest
that refutation is retarded, not aided, by mere sarcastic
misrepresentation. Every one who has studied cattle-breeding, or
turned pigeon-fancier, or "pomologist," must have been struck by the
extreme modifiability or plasticity of those kinds of animals and
plants which have been subjected to such artificial conditions as are
imposed by domestication. Breeds of dogs are more different from one
another than are the dog and the wolf; and the purely artificial races
of pigeons, if their origin were unknown, would most assuredly be
reckoned by naturalists as distinct species and even genera.