I5S THE HISTORY OF CREATION. 



to endeavour to hold fast and develop the modified forms by 

 Inheritance. He starts from the universal fact that children 

 resemble their parents, that "the apple does not fall far 

 from the tree." This phenomenon of Inheritance has hitherto 

 been scientifically examined only to a very small extent, 

 which may partly arise from the fact that the phenomenon 

 is of such everyday occurrence. Every one considers it 

 quite natural that every species should produce its like ; 

 that a horse should not suddenly produce a goose, or a goose 

 a frog. We are accustomed to look upon these everyday 

 occurrences of Inheritance as self-evident. But this phe- 

 nomenon is not so simply self-evident as it appears at 

 first sight, and in the examination of Inheritance the fact is 

 very frequently overlooked that the different descendants^ 

 derived from one and the same parents, are in reality never 

 quite identical, and also never absolutely like the parents^ 

 but are always slightly different. We cannot formulate the 

 principle of Inheritance, as "Like produces like," but we 

 must limit the expression to " Similar things produce 

 similar things." The gardener, as well as the farmer, 

 avails himself of the fact of Inheritance in its widest 

 form, and indeed with special regard to the fact that not 

 only those qualities of organisms are transmitted by 

 inheritance which they have inherited from their parents, 

 but those also which they themselves have acquired. This 

 is an important point upon which very much depends. An 

 organism can transmit to its descendants not only those 

 qualities of form, colour, and size which it has inherited 

 from its parents, but it can also transmit changes of these 

 qualities, which it has acquired during its own life through 

 the influence of outward circumstances, such as climate, 

 nourishment, training, etc. 



