Evolutionism and Darwinism. 55 



other animals, or even to plants, will readily ad 

 mit that each individual has peculiarities which 

 mark it off from its fellows. This, then, is the 



/-/ firstjfact to which Darwin calls attention indi 

 viduals of the same species, descendants of the 

 same parents, differ from one another by small, 

 insignificant, and indefinite variations. The sec- 



MJ) ond fact is that these differences may be trans 

 mitted to offspring ; they may be inherited. And 



\ the third fact is that man, by attending to those 

 variations which are useful or pleasing to him, 

 may originate breeds so diverse as the dray- and 

 the race-horse, or the greyhound and the race- 

 hound, or the carrier- and the tumbler-pigeon. 

 Man creates nothing ; he waits for the variations 

 which nature gives; and then selecting those 

 which are useful or pleasing to him, he preserves 

 them, and in preserving accumulates them, 

 throughout successive generations. Man s power 

 of accumulative selection is, therefore, the key 

 to the origin of our diverse breeds of domesti 

 cated animals and cultivated plants. And the 

 influence of this power cannot well be overesti 

 mated. Speaking of what breeders had done for 

 sheep, Lord Somerville observed, &quot; It would seem 

 as if they had chalked out upon a wall a form 

 perfect in itself, and then had given it existence.&quot; 



