240 DARWINIANA. 



resulted in species and that which is exhibited in races 

 and minor varieties. 



And now, in the introductory chapter of the vol- 

 ume of essays before us, he informs us that the idea 

 which pervades them all, and in some sort connects 

 very diverse topics, is that of considering this princi- 

 ple of selection. Of the principle itself, he remarks 

 that it is neither a theory nor an hypothesis, but the 

 expression of a necessary fact ; that to deny it is very 

 much like denving that round stones will roll down- 

 hill faster and farther than flat ones ; and that the 

 question of the present clay in natural history is not 

 whether there be natural selection, or even whether 

 forms are derived from other forms, but to compre- 

 hend how, in what proportions, and by what means 

 hereditary deviations take place, and in what ways an 

 inevitable -selection takes effect upon these. In two 

 of these essays natural selection is directly discussed 

 in its application to the human race ; the larger one 

 dealing ably with the whole subject, and with results 

 at first view seemingly in a great degree negative, 

 but yet showing that the supposed " failure of natural 

 selection in the case of man " was an unwarrantable 

 conclusion from too limited a view of a very compli- 

 cated question. The article abounds in acute and 

 fertile suggestions, and its closing chapter, " on the 

 probable future of the human species " under the 

 laws of selection, is highly interesting and noteworthy. 

 The other and shorter essay discusses a special point, 

 and brings out a corollary of the law of heredity 

 which may not have been thought of before, but 

 which is perfectly clear as soon as it is stated. It ex- 



