344 DARWINISM STATED BY DARWIN HIMSELF. 



ments of stone, though indispensable to the architect, 

 bear to the edifice built by him the same relation which 

 the fluctuating variations of organic beings bear to the 

 varied and admirable structures ultimately acquired by 

 their modified descendants. 



Some authors have declared that natural selection ex- 

 plains nothing, unless the precise cause of each slight 

 individual difference be made clear. If it were explained 

 to a savage utterly ignorant of the art of building, how 

 the edifice had been raised stone upon stone, and why 

 wedge-formed fragments were used for the arches, flat 

 stones for the roof, etc., and if the use of each part and 

 of the whole building were pointed out, it would be un- 

 reasonable if he declared that nothing had been made 

 clear to him, because the precise cause of the shape of 

 each fragment could not be told. But this is a nearly 

 parallel case with the objection that selection explains 

 nothing, because we know not the cause of each individ- 

 ual difference in the structure of each being. 



The shape of the fragments of stone at the base of 

 our precipice may be called accidental, but this is not 

 strictly correct ; for the shape of each depends on a long 

 sequence of events, all obeying natural laws ; on the na- 

 ture of the rock, on the lines of deposition or cleavage, 

 on the form of the mountain, which depends on its up- 

 heaval and subsequent denudation, and lastly on the 

 storm or earthquake which throws down the fragments. 

 But in regard to the use to which the fragments may 

 be put, their shape may be strictly said to be accidental. 



"FACE TO FACE WITH AN INSOLUBLE DIFFICULTY." 



fAnd here we are led to face a great diffi- 

 culty, in alluding to which I_am jiw are th at 

 I am traveling beyond my proper province. An omnis- 



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