72 DARWINISM STATED BY DARWIN HIMSELF. 



the various breeds of sheep fitted either for cultivated 

 land or mountain-pasture, with the wool of one breed 

 good for one purpose, and that of another breed for an- 

 other purpose ; when we compare the many breeds of 

 dogs, each good for man in different ways ; when we com- 

 pare the game-cock, so pertinacious in battle, with other 

 breeds so little quarrelsome, with "everlasting layers" 

 which never desire to sit, and with the bantam, so small 

 and elegant ; when we compare the host of agricultural, 

 culinary, orchard, and flower-garden races of plants, most 

 useful to man at different seasons and for different pur- 

 poses, or so beautiful in his eyes — we must, I think, look 

 further than to mere variability. We can not suppose 

 that all the breeds were suddenly produced as perfect and 

 as useful as we now see them ; indeed, in many cases, 

 we know that this has not been their history. The key 

 is man's power of accumulative selection : Nature gives 

 successive variations ; man adds them up in certain direc- 

 tions useful to him. In this sense he may be said to have 

 made for himself useful breeds. 



If selection consisted merely in separating 

 some very distinct variety, and breeding from 

 it, the principle would be so obvious as hardly to be worth 

 notice ; but its importance consists in the great effect 

 produced by the accumulation in one direction, during 

 successive generations, of differences absolutely inappre- 

 ciable by an uneducated eye — differences which I for one 

 have vainly attempted to appreciate. Not one man in a 

 thousand has accuracy of eye and judgment sufficient to 

 become an eminent breeder. If gifted with these quali- 

 ties, and he studies his subject for years, and devotes his 

 lifetime to it with indomitable perseverance, he will suc- 

 ceed, and may make great improvements ; if he wants 



