30 SPECIES NOT 



of his own theory! He first dismisses from his 

 category, as not serving his purpose, all variation 

 which is not inherited. It is important to bear 

 this in mind, because it is an admission that the 

 "law" of variation is largely exceptional, which, 

 at all events, takes it at once out of the list of 

 natural or biological laws, which are uniform and 

 constant. 



Then Mr. Darwin asserts that u like produces 

 like," which is quite true, and sums up by 

 stating that the "inheritance of every character 

 is the rule, and non-inheritance is the anomaly." 

 A sounder or truer passage was never penned. 

 Inheritance is the great Divine law by which 

 species have been preserved pure; non-inheritance 

 of a perfect form is the source of an anomaly of 

 variation. Such is my reading of this passage. 

 Can it be otherwise? If answered negatively, 

 then we must admit that no race, or species, or 

 form of any kind was ever perfect or pure, or 

 that the inheritance of variation is a constant 

 law; that of purity the anomaly and exception! 



Oh, but says Mr. Darwin, I mean nothing of 

 the kind, "I do not consider the law of variation 

 constant, but I do believe the law of inheritance 

 constant. Take one hundred individuals, and 

 suppose one of them exhibits a variation. This 

 variation is inherited by the succeeding progeny, 

 modified of course by its union with a pure in- 

 dividual; and the modified progeny will go on, 

 shall I say for ever, producing beings like them- 

 selves? No, I don't say for ever; for after a 



