576 THE BEGINNINGS OF IIFE. 



look Upon all causes of variability as being mere starting- 

 points for the action of Natural Selection \ This is 

 quite obvious from his general treatment of the subject, 

 and such a view is also very distinctly enunciated in the 

 following passage, where he says^: — 'We know, how- 

 ever, far too little of the causes and laws of variation 

 to make a sound classification. The direct actions of 

 the conditions of life, whether leading to definite or in- 

 definite results, is a totally distinct consideration from 

 the effects of Natural Selection; for Natural Selection 

 depends on the survival under various and complex circum- 

 stances of the best fitted individuals^ but has no relation 

 'vjhatever to the primary cause of any modification of struc- 

 ture.^ The passage we have italicized seems to show 

 most unmistakeably that the distinction between 

 Natural Selection as a malntalner of already estab- 

 lished forms, and Natural Selection as a producer of 

 new forms, is not recognized by Mr. Darwin; or, on 

 the other hand, if recognized, it must have been deli- 

 berately rejected. Mr. Darwin, in fact, attaches so 

 great an importance to Natural Selection as a producer 

 of change, and so little to the influence of the more 



1 Which, of course, is perfectly true, if we simply use the phrase 

 in its more general sense, although it is somewhat contradictory in 

 relation to the more special and more essentially Darwinian meaning 

 of the term. The fact that these two meanings of the term are not 

 clearly distinguished from one another by Mr. Darwin, has, I think, 

 led to certain misunderstandings on the part of some writers respecting 

 the real nature of his views. 



- ' Animals and Plants, &c.' vol. ii. p. 272, 186S. 



