CHAP. IX.] NATURAL SELECTION. 281 



&quot; an innate tendency &quot; to evolve the parent form from which 

 it sprang. Mr. Darwin conceives each animal and plant to 

 be built up of a number of &quot; gemmules,&quot; each gemraule being 

 the seat of powers, special tendencies and elective affinities 

 of a most complex kind. In fact, as Mr. Lewes says, we have 

 thus &quot; the very power which was pronounced mysterious in 

 larger organisms.&quot; It seems, as before said, simpler and far 

 more natural to regard each animal as the seat of one 

 governing force than as itself made up of a number of living 

 creatures so minute as to be invisible to the highest power of 

 the microscope, and each animated by a governing force of 

 its own. Surely this is to multiply difficulties of conception 

 against both sense and reason alike. 



The great question as to how the different kinds of animals 

 and plants which now people this planet first arose Ori in of 

 has been answered at various times in various wavs. s v&amp;lt;% ies &amp;gt; the 



J tlUlilOr a 



My own view has been expressed as follows :* view - 



&quot; It is quite conceivable that the material organic world may be so 

 constituted that the simultaneous action upon it of all known forces, 

 mechanical, physical, chemical, magnetic, terrestrial, and cosmical, 

 together with other as yet unknown forces which probably exist, may 

 result in changes which are harmonious and symmetrical ; just as the 

 internal nature of vibrating plates causes particles of sand scattered 

 over them to assume definite and symmetrical figures when made to 

 oscillate in different ways by the bow of a violin being drawn along 

 their edges. The results of these combined internal powers and 

 external influences might be represented under the symbols of complex 

 series of vibrations (analogous to those of sound or light) forming a 

 most complex harmony or a display of most varied colours. In such a 

 way the reparation of local injuries might be symbolized as a filling-up 

 and completion of an interrupted rhythm. Thus also monstrous 

 aberrations from typical structure might correspond to a discord, and 

 sterility from crossing be compared with the darkness resulting from 

 the interference of waves of light. 



&quot; Such symbolism will harmonize with the peculiar reproduction, 

 before mentioned, of heads in the body of certain annelids, with the 

 facts of serial homology, as well as those of bilateral and vertical sym 

 metry. Also, as the atoms of a resonant body may be made to give 

 out sound by the juxtaposition of a vibrating tuning-fork, so it is con- 



Genesis of Species, 2nd edition, p. 261. 



