Darwinism Verified. 15 



as this, no individual peculiarity can be so slight 

 that we are entitled to regard it as unimportant. 

 No peculiarity is really slight that enables its 

 possessor to survive until he transmits it to pos 

 terity. 



In view of all this we see how misleading it is 

 to describe natural selection (as Mr. Mivart does) 

 as a process which operates only occasionally upon 

 variations assumed to be fortuitous. We see that 

 natural selection, like a power that slumbers not 

 nor sleeps, is ever preserving the stability of spe 

 cies by seizing all individual peculiarities that os 

 cillate within narrow limits on either side of the 

 mean that is most advantageous to the species, 

 while cutting off all such peculiarities as trans 

 gress these limits. Domesticated animals, pro 

 tected from the exigencies of wild life, often 

 exhibit great varieties in colouring, while wild 

 animals of the same genus or species are monoto 

 nously coloured, because only one kind of colour 

 ing will aid them in catching prey or eluding ene 

 mies, and all the variations are killed out. Who 

 can doubt that antelopes are so fleet only because 

 all but the fleetest individuals are sure to be over 

 taken and eaten by lions ? Protected from the 

 lions, a thousand generations might well make 

 them as lazy and clumsy as sheep. 



