TRANSMUTABLE. 67 



/ 



evidence of change which must inevitably come 

 over their bodily form! 



Natural selection is the subject treated of 

 by Mr. Darwin in Chapter IY. By this he 

 means the preservation, by nature, of favourable, 

 and the rejection of injurious variations. 



Does such a thing exist? I firmly believe 

 not. Mr. Darwin begs the question thus : "Can 

 it then be thought improbable, seeing that va- 

 riations useful to man have undoubtedly occurred, 

 that other variations useful in some way to 

 each being in the great and complex battle of 

 life, should sometimes occur in the course of 

 thousands of generations?" 



Mr. Darwin illustrates the idea of natural 

 selection in many ways. He supposes a country 

 passing through a change of climate, and the 

 inhabitants immediately undergoing a change; 

 some would immigrate, and thus distort the 

 relations of the rest. Thus "natural selection" 

 would have a better chance of "profitable vari- 

 ation to work upon," and unless they are 

 profitable, natural selection can do nothing. This 

 "natural selection" is all-powerful. "It can act 

 on every internal organ, on every shade of con- 

 stitutional difference, on the whole machinery of 

 life." (Page 83.) 



Instances of natural selection in the preser- 

 vation of the being are exemplified by "leaf- 

 eatirig insects being green," and "bark-feeders 

 mottled grey," "the alpine ptarmigan being white 

 in winter," "the red grouse colour of heath, and 



