The Metaphysics of Darwinism. 91 



ing, then, that such advantageous modifications 

 somehow arise, the beings thus characterized will 

 have the best chance of being preserved ; and 

 these serviceable peculiarities will be propagated 

 and, in successive generations, consolidated until 

 there emerge at last varieties, as strongly, or more 

 strongly marked than our domestic races. But 

 this preservation, or survival of the fittest, is what 

 Darwin calls natural selection. And it must 

 now be evident that we have the best grounds for 

 comparing its function in the development of 

 species with man s function in the formation of 

 domestic races. 



Not the likening of nature s work to man s, 

 but the assignment to both natural and human 

 selection of results which they are incompetent to 

 produce, is the real valid objection to Darwin s 

 presentation of his theory. &quot;We have already 

 seen that man can no more accumulate variations 

 than he can produce them ; accumulation is 

 simply a continuous production. And yet, while 

 Darwin concedes to Hooker and Asa Gray that 

 man &quot; can neither originate varieties rior prevent 

 their occurrence,&quot; it is added and that, too, in 

 passing from human to natural selection that 

 &quot; he can only preserve and accumulate such as do 

 occur.&quot; Only accumulate ! And then, of course, 



