274 Darwin, and after Darwin. 



And whatever answer Mr. Wallace may make to this 

 criticism, I do not see how he is to meet the point at 

 present before us namely, that, upon his own show- 

 ing, there are in nature numberless instances of 

 " characters which are useless without being hurtful," 

 and which nevertheless present absolute " constancy." 

 If, in order to explain the contradiction, he should fall 

 back upon the principle of correlation, the case would 

 not be in any way improved. For, here again, if the 

 term correlation were extended so as to include "the 

 chemical constitution or the molecular structure of 

 the organism," it would thereby be extended so as to 

 discharge all Darwinian significance from the term. 



Summary. 



I will conclude this discussion of the Utility 

 question by recapitulating the main points in an 

 order somewhat different from that in which they 

 have been presented in the foregoing chapters. Such 

 a variation may render their mutual connexions more 

 apparent. But it is only to the main points that 

 allusion will here be made, and, in order the better 

 to show their independent character, I will separately 

 number them. 



1. The doctrine of utility as universal, whether 

 with respect to species only or likewise with respect 

 to specific characters, is confessedly an a priori 

 doctrine, deduced by way of general reasoning from 

 the theory of natural selection. 



2. Being thus founded exclusively on grounds of 

 deduction, the doctrine cannot be combated by any 



