EVOLUTION AND NATURAL SELECTION 9 



"But man can act only on external and visible characters. 

 Nature cares nothing for appearances, except in so far as they 

 act on every internal organ, on every shade of constitutional 

 difference, on the whole machinery of hfe. Man selects only 

 for his own good, nature only for that of the being which she 

 tends. Man keeps the natives of many climates in the same 

 country — he feeds the long and short beaked pigeon on 

 the same food. He often begins his selection by some half 

 monstrous form, or at least by some modification prominent 

 enough 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 preserved." 



"How fleeting are the wishes and efforts of man, how short 

 his time, and consequently how poor will be his results 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 con- 

 ditions of life and should plainly bear the stamp of far higher 

 workmanship.'' No breeder doubts the strong tendency to 

 inheritance. That like produces hke is his fundamental 

 belief. Every one has heard of strange and rare deviations 

 of structure being inherited. Now if these are freely ad- 

 mitted to be inherited, how much more are the less strange 

 forms inherited." Darwin again says the laws governing 

 inheritance are for the most part unknown. "Perhaps the 

 correct way of viewing the whole subject would be to look 

 at inheritance as a rule and non-inheritance as an anomaly. 

 The whole subject of inheritance is wonderful. When a new 

 character arises, whatever its nature may be, it tends to be 

 inherited, at least in a temporary and sometimes in a per- 

 sistent manner." 



Castle has recently stated: "Every new individual arises out 

 of material derived exclusively from its parents. This is the 

 basis of heredity. But it does not follow that the new individ- 

 ual will resemble its parents merely. It may resemble remote 

 ancestors more strongly than either parent. For it repre- 

 sents a combination of materials or of quahties derived 



