76 ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES 



of selection, what may not Nature effect ? Man can act 

 only on external and visible characters : Nature cares 

 nothing- for appearances, except in so far as they may 

 be useful to any being. She can act on every internal 

 organ, on every shade of constitutional difference, on the 

 whole machinery of life. Man selects only for his own 

 good ; Nature only for that of the being which she tends. 

 Every selected character is fully exercised by her ; and 

 the being is placed under well-suited conditions of life. 

 Man keeps the natives of many climates in the same 

 country ; he seldom exercises each selected character 

 in some peculiar and fitting manner ; he feeds a long 

 and a short beaked pigeon on the same food ; he does 

 not exercise a long-backed or long-legged quadruped in 

 any peculiar manner ; he exposes sheep with long and 

 short wool to the same climate. He does not allow the 

 most vigorous males to struggle for the females. He 

 does not rigidly destroy all inferior animals, but protects 

 during each varying season, as far as lies in his power, 

 all his productions. He often begins his selection by 

 some half-monstrous form ; or at least by some modifi- 

 cation prominent enough to catch his eye, or to be plainly 

 useful to him. Under nature, the slightest difference 

 of structure or constitution may well turn the nicely- 

 balanced scale in the struggle for life, and so be pre- 

 served. How fleeting are the wishes and efforts of man ] 

 how short his time! and consequently how poor will 

 his products be, compared with those accumulated by 

 Nature during whole geological periods. Can we wonder, 

 then, that Nature's productions should be far 'truer' 

 in character than man's productions ; that they should 

 be infinitely better adapted to the most complex condi- 

 tions of life, and should plainly bear the stamp of far 

 higher workmanship? 



It may metaphorically be said that natural selection 

 is daily and hourly scrutinising, throughout the world, 

 every variation, even the slightest ; rejecting that which 

 is bad, preserving and adding up all that is good ; 

 silently and insensibly working, whenever and wherever 

 opportunity offers, at the improvement of each organic 



