Criticisms of Theory of Natural Selection. 343 



of natural selection in any case depends upon a variety 

 of highly complex conditions; and, therefore, that the 

 fact of all those conditions having been satisfied in 

 one instance is no reason for concluding that they 

 must also have been satisfied in other instances. Take, 

 for example, the case of monkeys passing into men. 

 The wonder to me appears to be that this improve- 

 ment should have taken place in even one line of 

 descent ; not that, having taken place in one line, 

 it should not also have taken place in other lines. 

 For how enormously complex must have been the 

 conditions physical, anatomical, physiological, psy- 

 chological, sociological which by their happy con- 

 junction first began to raise the inarticulate cries of 

 an ape into the rational speech of a man. Therefore, 

 the more that we appreciate the superiority of a man 

 to an ape, the less ought we to countenance this 

 supposed objection to Darwin's theory namely, that 

 natural selection has not effected the change in more 

 than one line of descent. 



Even in the case of two races of mankind where 

 one has risen higher in the scale of civilization 

 than another, it is now generally impossible to assign 

 the particular causes of the difference ; much more, 

 then, must this be impossible in the case of still more 

 remote conditions which have led to the divergence 

 of species. The requisite variations may not have 

 arisen in the one line of descent which did arise in 

 the other ; or if they did arise in both, some 

 counterbalancing disadvantages may have attended 

 their initial development in the one case which 

 did not obtain in the other. In short, where 

 so exceedingly complex a play of conditions are 



