George Henslow

“ Without at present giving more reasons, the above will be sufficient to show cause why Science has found herself compelled to secede from the cramping toils of the creative hypothesis, and to take up that of the evolution of living things as better explaining all the foregoing phenomena. ”

“ In proportion as the probability of the former was seen to decrease, so in the same degree does that of evolution increase. Hence, at the present day the argument in favor of development of species by natural laws may be stated in the following terms, viz.: "It is infinitely more probable that all living and extinct beings have been developed or evolved by natural laws of generation from preexisting forms, than that they with all their innumerable races and varieties should owe their existences severally to creative fiats." ”

“ After many years of successful propagation, generation after generation, we have now arrived at the result that animals and plants can be produced by careful breeding and selection, which, had they been wild, our earlier naturalists would have undoubtedly regarded as having been respectively created at the beginning of the world! ”

“ This property of Nature, to which also the human race is invariably subject, man has seized upon, and by judicious treatment can almost mould his cattle to whatever form he pleases, or stock his fields and gardens with roots of any form or with flowers of any shade of color required. ”

“ Secondly, there is the unfortunate but very general want of any scientific training, not only among the clergy, but in the public generally; and, as a result, there is that absence of a due power of appreciation of the arguments of the scientific man, which is so conspicuous in their style of reasoning. ”

“ Hence it has come to pass, from the result of this discovery, that so far from forms or types of organisms being easy and of a precise character, in accordance with the idea of each being well defined after his kind, systematic zoology and botany are the most difficult tasks a naturalist can undertake. ”

“ In order, therefore, that the proof of the wisdom and beneficence of the Almighty, as shown in the processes of evolution, may not be considered as based on unsound premises, it will be desirable to point out the untenableness of the present theological position, as well as the grounds upon which evolution is founded ”

“ Moreover, in addition to the statement that God created or made all things, there is the oft-repeated assertion embodied in the word flat, but apparently overlooked, that He enjoined the earth and the waters to bring forth living forms. ”