100 DARWINISM STATED BY DARWIN HIMSELF. 



and visible characters : Nature, if I may be allowed to 

 personify the natural preservation or survival of the fit- 

 test, cares nothing for appearances, except in so far as 

 they are useful to any being. She can act on every inter- 

 nal organ, on every shade of constitutional difference, on 

 the whole machinery of life. Man selects only for his 

 own good : Nature only for that of the being which she 

 tends. Every selected character is fully exercised by her, 

 as is implied by the fact of their selection. Man keeps 

 the natives of many climates in the same country ; he 

 seldom exercises each selected character in some peculiar 

 and fitting manner ; he feeds a long and a short beaked 

 pigeon on the same food ; he does not exercise a long- 

 backed or long-legged quadruped in any peculiar manner ; 

 he exposes sheep with long and short wool to the same 

 climate. He does not allow the most vigorous males to 

 struggle for the females. He does not rigidly destroy all 

 inferior animals, but protects during each varying season, 

 as far as lies in his power, all his productions. He often 

 begins his selection by some half-monstrous form ; or at 

 least by some modification prominent enough to catch 

 the eye or to be plainly useful to him. Under nature, the 

 slightest differences 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 won- 

 der, 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 conditions 

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

 workmanship ? 



