288 OBITUARY X 



follows, therefore, that every variety which is 

 selected into a species is so favoured and pre- 

 served in consequence of being, in some one or 

 more respects, better adapted to its surroundings 

 than its rivals. In other words, every species 

 which exists, exists in virtue of adaptation, and 

 whatever accounts for that adaptation accounts for 

 the existence of the species. 



To say that Darwin has put forward a theory of 

 the adaptation of species, but not of their origin, 

 is therefore to misunderstand the first principles 

 of the theory. For, as has been pointed out, it is 

 a necessary consequence of the theory of selection 

 that every species must have some one or more 

 structural or functional peculiarities, in virtue of 

 the advantage conferred by which, it has fought 

 through the crowd of its competitors and achieved 

 a certain duration. In this sense, it is true 

 that every species has been " originated " by 

 selection. 



There is another sense, however, in which it is 

 equally true that selection originates nothing. 

 " Unless profitable variations .... occur natural 

 selection can do nothing " (" Origin/' Ed. I. p. 82). 

 " Nothing can be effected unless favourable 

 variations occur " (ibid., p. 108). " What applies 

 to one animal will apply throughout time to all 

 animals that is, if they vary for otherwise 

 natural selection can do nothing. So it will be 

 with plants" (ibid., p. 113). Strictly speaking, 



