LORD SALISBURY'S 1894 ADDRESS 3 



in one of the Sections, and I have little doubt that he 

 referred to these criticisms and to this Section. When 

 I had to face the duty of preparing this address, I could 

 find no subjects better than those provided by Lord Salis- 

 bury. 



At first the second objection seemed to offer the more 

 attractive subject. It was clear that the theory of 

 Natural Selection as held by Darwin was misconceived 

 by the speaker, and that the criticism was ill-aimed. 

 Darwin and Wallace, from the very first, considered that 

 the minute differences which separate individuals were 

 of far more importance than the large single variations 

 which occasionally arise — Lord Salisbury's advanta- 

 geously varied bride and bridegroom at opposite ends 

 of the wood. In fact, after Fleeming Jenkins's criticisms 

 in the North British Review for June, 1867, Darwin 

 abandoned these large single variations altogether. Thus 

 he wrote in a letter to Wallace (February 2, 1869) : 

 ' I always thought individual differences more important ; 

 but I was blind, and thought single variations might 

 be preserved much oftener than I now see is possible 

 or probable. I mentioned this in my former note 

 merely because I believed that you had come to a 

 similar conclusion, and I like much to be in accord 

 with you.' ^ Hence we may infer that the other great 

 discoverer of Natural Selection had come to the same 

 conclusion at an even earlier date. But this fact 

 removes the whole point from the criticism I have just 

 quoted. According to the Darwin-Wallace theory of 

 Natural Selection, individuals sufficiently advantageously 

 varied to become the material for a fresh advance 

 when an advance became necessary, and at other times 

 competent to maintain the ground previously gained — 

 such individuals existed not only at the opposite ends 

 of the wood, but were common enough in every colony 

 within its confines. The mere fact that an individual 

 had been able to reach the condition of a possible 

 bride or bridegroom would count for much. Few will 

 dispute that such individuals 'have already successfully 



' Life and Letter s, vol. iii, 

 B 2 



