362 EVOLUTION, OLD AND NEW. 



CHAPTER XXL 



MR. DARWIN'S DEFENCE OF THE EXPRESSION, NATURAL 

 SELECTION PROFESSOR MIVART AND NATURAL 

 SELECTION. 



So important is it that we should come to a clear under- 

 standing upon the positions taken by Mr. Darwin and 

 Lamarck respectively, that at the risk of wearying the 

 reader I will endeavour to exhaust this subject here. 

 In order to do so, I will follow Mr. Darwin's answer to 

 those who have objected to the expression, "natural 

 selection." 



Mr. Darwin says : 



" Several writers have misapprehended or objected 

 to the term * natural selection/ Some have even 

 imagined that natural selection induces variability." * 



And small wonder if they have ; but those who have 

 fallen into this error are hardly worth considering. 

 The true complaint is that Mr. Darwin has too often 

 written of "natural selection" as though it does 

 induce variability, and that his language concerning it 

 is so confusing that the reader is not helped to see 

 that it really comes to nothing but a cloak of difference 

 from his predecessors, under which there lurks a con- 

 * ' Origin of Species,' p. 62. 



