18 THE FACTORS OP ORGANIC EVOLUTION. 



aid from the transmission of functionally-acquired modifications. But in 

 proportion as the life grows complex in proportion as a healthy existence 

 cannot be secured by a large endowment of some one power, but demands 

 many powers ; in the same proportion do there arise obstacles to the increase 

 of any particular power, by &quot; the preservation of favoured races in the 

 struggle for life.&quot; As fast as the faculties are multiplied, so fast does it 

 become possible for the several members of a species to have various kinds 

 of superiorities over one another. While one saves its life by higher speed, 

 another does the like by clearer vision, another by keener scent, another by 

 quicker hearing, another by greater strength, another by unusual power of 

 enduring cold or hunger, another by special sagacity, another by special 

 timidity, another by special courage ; and others by other bodily and mental 

 attributes. Now it is unquestionably true that, other things equal, each of 

 these attributes, giving its possessor an extra chance of life, is likely to be 

 transmitted to posterity. But there seems no reason to suppose that it will 

 be increased in subsequent generations by natural selection. That it may be 

 thus increased, the individuals not possessing more than average endow 

 ments of it, must be more frequently killed off than individuals highly 

 endowed with it ; and this can happen only when the attribute is one of 

 greater importance, for the time being, than most of the other attributes. If 

 those members of the species which have but ordinary shares of it, neverthe 

 less survive by virtue of other superiorities which they severally possess ; 

 then it is not easy to see how this particular attribute can be developed by 

 natural selection in subsequent generations. The probability seems rather 

 to be, that by gamogenesis, this extra endowment will, on the average, be 

 diminished in posterity just serving in the long run to compensate the 

 deficient endowments of other individuals, whose special powers lie in other 

 directions ; and so to keep up the normal structure of the species. The 

 working out of the process is here somewhat difficult to follow ; but it appears 

 to me that as fast as the number of bodily and mental faculties increases, 

 and as fast as the maintenance of life comes to depend less on the amount 

 of any one, and more on the combined action of all ; so fast does the pro 

 duction of specialities of character by natural selection alone, become 

 difficult. Particularly does this seem to be so with a species so multitudinous 

 in its powers as mankind ; and above all does it seem to be so with such of 

 the human powers as have but minor shares in aiding the struggle for life 

 the aesthetic faculties, for example.&quot; 



Dwelling for a moment on this last illustration of the 

 class of difficulties described, let us ask how we are to 

 interpret the development of the musical faculty. I will 

 not enlarge on the family antecedents of the great com 

 posers. I will merely suggest the inquiry whether the 

 greater powers possessed by Beethoven and Mozart, by 

 Weber and Rossini, than by their fathers, were not due 



