290 LESSONS FROM NATURE. [CHAP. TX. 



certain and definite line, whether such direct tendency 

 resulted mainly from internal predisposing or external ex 

 citing causes. 



The benefit of the individual in the struggle for life was 

 announced as the one determining agent, fixing slight bene 

 ficial variations into enduring characters, and the evolution 

 of species by such agency is justly and properly to be termed 

 formation by &quot; natural selection.&quot; 



That in this Mr. Darwin is not misrepresented is evident 

 from his own words before quoted : 



&quot; If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which 

 could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight 

 modifications, my theory would absolutely break down.&quot;* Also : 

 &quot; Every detail of structure in every living creature (making some little 

 allowance for the direct action of physical conditions) may be viewed, 

 either as having been of special use to some ancestral form, or as being 

 now of special use to the descendants of this form either directly, or 

 indirectly, through the complex laws of growth ;&quot; and &quot; if it could be 

 proved that any part of the structure of any one species had been 

 formed for the exclusive good of another species, it would annihilate 

 my theory, for such could not have been produced by natural selec 

 tion.&quot; f 



I repeat, emphatically, Mr. Darwin could hardly have 

 employed words by which more thoroughly to stake the 

 whole of his theory on the non-existence or non-action of 

 causes of any such importance as that assigned by him to 

 natural selection. For why, we may ask once more, should 

 such a phenomenon &quot;annihilate his theory&quot;? Because the 

 very essence of his theory, as originally put forth, is, as 

 before said, to recognise only the conservation of slight 

 variations directly beneficial to the creature presenting them, 

 by enabling it to obtain food, escape enemies, and propagate 

 its kind. 



Such being the case, my object was to show not only that 

 &quot; natural selection &quot; is inadequate to the task assigned it, but 



* Origin of Species, p. 208. 

 t Op. cit. p. 220. 



