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CHAPTER XXV: THE MACHINES--concluded
Here followed a very long and untranslatable digression about the
different races and families of the then existing machines. The writer
attempted to support his theory by pointing out the similarities existing
between many machines of a widely different character, which served to
show descent from a common ancestor. He divided machines into their
genera, subgenera, species, varieties, subvarieties, and so forth. He
proved the existence of connecting links between machines that seemed to
have very little in common, and showed that many more such links had
existed, but had now perished. He pointed out tendencies to reversion,
and the presence of rudimentary organs which existed in many machines
feebly developed and perfectly useless, yet serving to mark descent from
an ancestor to whom the function was actually useful.
I left the translation of this part of the treatise, which, by the way,
was far longer than all that I have given here, for a later opportunity.
Unfortunately, I left Erewhon before I could return to the subject; and
though I saved my translation and other papers at the hazard of my life,
I was a obliged to sacrifice the original work.
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