2. Secondly, the attempt might be successful to a greater or less
extent. If it was possible upon the foundation and with the aid of the
Darwinian theory, to show in what sequence the various smaller and
larger circles had separated from the common fundamental form and from
each other, in what sequence they had acquired the peculiarities which
now characterise them, and what transformations they had undergone in
the lapse of ages,--if the establishment of such a genealogical tree, of
a primitive history of the group under consideration, free from internal
contradictions, was possible,--then this conception, the more completely
it took up all the species within itself, and the more deeply it enabled
us to descend into the details of their structure, must in the same
proportion bear in itself the warrant of its truth, and the more
convincingly prove that the foundation upon which it is built is no
loose sand, and that it is more than merely "an intellectual dream."
3. In the third place, however, it was possible, and this could not but
appear, prima facie, the most probable case, that the attempt might be
frustrated by the difficulties standing in its way, without settling the
question, either way, in a perfectly satisfactory manner. But if it were
only possible in this way to arrive for oneself at a moderately certain
independent judgment upon a matter affecting the highest questions so
deeply, even this alone could not but be esteemed a great gain.
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