294 LESSONS FROM NATURE. [CHAP. IX. 



scrupulous audacity with whieh they have been denied. It 

 is but an act of justice to endeavour to prevent the public 

 attaching, in mere deference to Mr. Darwin s authority, a 

 greater weight to his assertions than the evidence adduced 

 warrants. It has been sought to do this by showing, by 

 Mr. Darwin s own words, he has been compelled to admit 

 that &quot; abrupt strongly marked changes &quot; may occur &quot; neither 

 beneficial nor injurious&quot; to the creatures possessing them, 

 produced &quot; by unknown agencies &quot; lying deep in &quot; the nature 

 of the organism.&quot; In other words, that Mr. Darwin has in 

 fact,* though not in express words, abandoned his original 

 theory of the &quot; origin of species.&quot; 



I am grateful, however, to Professor Huxley for having 

 spoken of &quot; injustice &quot; in connection with Mr. Darwin. I am 

 so because it affords me an opportunity for declaring myself 

 more fully. The struggle between my inclination to praise 

 and to acquiesce, and my sense of duty which impelled me 

 to dissent, led me to express myself very imperfectly, and I 

 thank Professor Huxley for having given me occasion to 

 acknowledge my regret that these sentiments should have 

 led me to give in my Genesis of Species such very inade 

 quate expression to my dissent from, and reprobation of, 

 Mr. Darwin s views, especially as manifested in their later 

 developments. 



As to the principles embodied in Mr. Darwin s Origin of 

 Species, the further study of them more and more brings 

 home to me their unsatisfactoriness. Indeed, &quot; natural selec 

 tion,&quot; as the agent for the determination of specific animal 

 forms, is, I am convinced, utterly insufficient to the task 



* Professor Huxley now tells us that Mr. Darwin is inclined to admit that 

 varieties can &quot; be perpetuated, or even intensified, when selective conditions 

 are indifferent, or perhaps unfavourable&quot; to their &quot;existence.&quot; Surely if 

 species may be evolved in the teeth of nil the opposition &quot; natuial selection &quot; 

 can offer, it is, to say the least, somewhat paradoxical to affirm that neverthe 

 less natural selection is their cause. For all this Mr. Darwin has not I 

 believe, expressly said that the action of &quot;natural selection &quot; is only sub 

 ordinate, though he asserts it to be co-ordinate. So that though he has 

 virtually given up his original theory, his view does not yet coincide with 

 mine, as far as I can gather from his words. 



