CHAPTER VI. 



CHARACTERS AS HEREDITARY AND ACQUIRED 

 (conclusion *). 



IN the foregoing chapters I have endeavoured 

 to be, before all things, impartial ; and if it seems 

 that I have been arguing chiefly in favour of the 

 Lamarckian principles, this has been because the 

 only way of examining the question is to consider 

 what has to be said on the affirmative side, and 

 then to see what the negative side can say in 

 reply. Before we are entitled to discard the Lamarck- 

 ian factors in toto, we must be able to destroy 

 all evidence of their action. This, indeed, is what 

 the ultra- Darwinians profess to have done. But 

 is not their profession premature? Is it not evident 

 that they have not sufficiently considered certain 

 general facts of nature, or certain particular results 

 of experiment, which at all. events appear inex- 

 plicable by the theory of natural selection alone ? 

 In any case the present discussion has been devoted 

 mainly to indicating such general facts and par- 

 ticular results. If I have fallen into errors, either 



[> See note appended to Preface. C. LI. M.J 



