210 THE DARWINIAN THEORY. 
swayed by words, particularly when they express the greatest non- 
sense with the greatest solemnity. So, then, in the fourth edition the 
concessions of the third are qualified, and the word “ baseless,” which 
had been selected as the proper designation of such speculations, is 
cancelled. In the fourth edition, indeed, they are useless, but not 
baseless ; all hope of a foundation is not utterly rejected, for some- 
thing of the sort may perhaps be discovered by those who will go as 
deep as Mr. Herbert Spencer, and at the very bottom of all things 
homologous units may perhaps become differential. 
evertheless, in both the editions the contradiction remains, that 
after telling us all speculations on such a subject would be useless, 
Mr. Darwin himself undertakes to furnish us with an answer to the 
difficulty. He tells us, as we have seen, “that in the very dawn of 
life there would be a struggle for existence, variations might be bene- 
ficial,” and natural selection would commence her operations. After 
all, then, these speculations are neither baseless nor useless, and Mr. 
Darwin proposes a solution for the difficulties of the case, which, if it 
would bear examination, would solve the problem. 
Let us now examine this “ speculation,” and see if it supplies the 
deficiencies of the imaginary progenitors. Let us suppose that A. is 
the first primordial form which has received its organization and life 
by an act of creation, what is the next move? A. produces A?, but 
how ? surely by generation, so that A? inherits its organization and life 
from A., and is nothing more nor less than a;reproduction and per- 
petuation of A. Here, then, there is no step in the scale of organized 
ings. A. may be multiplied in its offspring to any extent, but still 
we have only A?, for the offspring only perpetuates the parent. How, 
then, does a new creature make its appearance? How do we see a 
real independent B., which does not perpetuate A., but is a new orga- 
nization, distinct from A., constituting a new species? “ Variations," 
we are told, “ in a single species, might be beneficial,” that is, it might 
be better that a change should take place, and therefore a change does 
take place dy accident; a new creature B. is formed by natural selec- 
tion; B. exterminates A. and remains sole master of the field. But 
when all the world was unoccupied, when there was but one species 
existing, say a fern on the land, or a trilobite in the waters, there coul 
be no push or competition for place or position, there could be no 
"struggle for life.” The tragic existence of murderous selfishness, 
