THE LOGIC OF DARWINISM 535 



probably at first have been laughed out of court but afterwards 

 it might have been tried and would have met with an unexpected 

 degree of success; and this would have been experimental proof 

 of the theory. Now, as the fact happens, it is just this sort 

 of experiment that has for ages been extensively and continuously 

 carried on by man in the process of domestication, that word 

 being used in its widest sense to include the cultivation of plants. 

 In what way and to what extent is the logical value of this series 

 of experiments affected by the fact that it began long before 

 Darwin was born ? I venture to think it is not affected at all. 

 So far as can be done in a few paragraphs, it may be well to 

 inquire in more detail what that process is and what it proves. 

 Its origin, deeply buried in antiquity, is to us mere matter of 

 surmise. It seems likely that it began not in any deliberate 

 subjugation of animals by men but in a partnership due to 

 mutual advantage. Probably wolves began to domesticate them- 

 selves with man as partners in the chase and scavengers to pick 

 up the offal and bones after that clever hunter had gorged 

 himself on his quarry, whilst men may have made a practice of 

 following the pack in full cry and coming in at the death to rob 

 them of their prey. Both practices would surely tend to the 

 evolution of the friendly dog out of the unfriendly wolf, by the 

 continual elimination of all such fiercer members of the pack as 

 turned on men or refused to give them way. But however 

 probable this may be, it is clear that no such surmises can be 

 cited as experimental proof of the theory, simply because of the 

 absence of all record of the facts. It is of the essence of such 

 proof that it should be founded not on surmise however probable 

 but on duly attested facts. Of these beginnings there are no 

 records but as we travel downwards through history records 

 begin to appear; first perhaps in the shape of wall-pictures and 

 then in writings and finally in books, until at the other end of 

 the scale we reach such facts as are cited in the following passage 

 taken from Weismann's Evolution Theory (English translation), 

 vol. i. p. 38 : " Darwin says ' The English judges decided that 

 the comb of the Spanish cock, which had previously hung 

 limply down, should stand erect and in five years this end was 

 achieved ; they ordained that hens should have beards and six 

 years later fifty-seven of the groups of hens exhibited at the 

 Crystal Palace in London were bearded.' " What is proved by 

 this double set of experiments or experiences ? Among others 



