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288 OBITUARY x : 
follows, therefore, that every variety which is. 
selected into a species is so favoured and pre~ 
served in consequence of being, in some one or 
more respects, better adapted to its surroundings 
than its rivals. In other words, every species 
which exists, exists in virtue of adaptation, and 
whatever accounts for that adaptation accounts ford 
the existence of the species. 
To say that Darwin has put forward a theory off 
the adaptation of species, but not of their origin, 
is therefore to misunderstand the first principles 
of the theory. For, as has been pointed out, it is 
a necessary consequence of the theory of selection” 
that every species must have some one or more 
structural or functional peculiarities, in virtue of 
the advantage conferred by which, it has fought 
through the crowd of its competitors and achieved) 
a certain duration. In this sense, it is true 
that every species has been “ originated ” E 
selection. 
There is another sense, however, in which it ia | 
equally true that selection originates nothing, 
“Unless profitable variations . . . . occur natural — 
selection can do nothing” (“ Origin,” Ed. I. p. re 
“Nothing can be effected unless favourable ~ 
variations occur” (ibid., p. 108). “ What appliaa 
to one animal will apply throughout time to all — 
animals—that is, if they vary—for otherwi 5 
natural selection can do nothing. So it will 
with plants” (ibid., p. 113). Strictly speaking, 
