DARWIN 



sumed that in the natural state the same would occur. 

 His attention was soon called to the fact that, if only 

 a few individuals possess an advantageous variation, 

 the effect of chance mating would prevent its contin- 

 uation, since there would be little probability of these 

 few individuals mating together in the great crowd of 

 others. In the sixth edition, Darwin admits the jus- 

 tice of this criticism and, in doing so, he absolutely 

 abandons his whole theory of natural selection. What 

 else can we conclude from his statement: "There can 

 also be little doubt that the tendency to vary in the 

 satne manner has often been so strong that all the in- 

 dividuals of the same species have been similarly 

 modified without the aid of any form of selection. Or 

 only a third, fifth, or tenth part of the individuals 

 may have been thus affected, of which fact several 

 instances could be given.""* When we consider the 

 almost infinite variety of forms of life, the enormous 

 amount of variations, and the uncountable number 

 of times variations must have occurred if we suppose 

 all existing organisms are the descendants of a single 

 protoplasmic cell (or of a very few) ; then the mathe- 

 matical probability, that these changes have been 

 brought about by the simultaneous variation in the 

 same characteristic of all, or a tenth part of the in- 

 dividuals of a species, is zero. If this is not the doc- 

 trine of Design, pure and simple, it is nothing. Dar- 

 win plays so fast and loose with the mathematical 



2* Oriffin of Species, vol. I, p. 113. 



C 227 3 



