240 DARWINIANA. 



resulted in species and that which is exhibited in races 

 and minor varieties. 



And now, in the introductory chapter of the vol- 

 ume of essays before us, he informs us that the idea 

 which pervades them all, and in some sort connects 

 very diverse topics, is that of considering this princi- 

 ple of selection. Of the principle itself, he remarks 

 that it is neither a theory nor an hypothesis, but the 

 expression of a necessary fact ; that to deny it is very 

 much like denying that round stories will roll down- 

 hill faster and farther than flat ones; and that the 

 question of the present day in natural history is not 

 whether there be natural selection, or even whether 

 forms are derived from other forms, but to compre- 

 hend how, in what proportions, and by what means 

 hereditary deviations take place, and in what ways an 

 inevitable selection takes effect upon these. In two 

 of these essays natural selection is directly discussed 

 in its application to the human race ; the larger one 

 dealing ably with the whole subject, and with results 

 at first view seemingly in a great degree negative, 

 but yet showing that the supposed " failure of natural 

 selection in the case of man " was an unwarrantable 

 conclusion from too limited a view of a very compli- 

 cated question. The article abounds in acute and 

 fertile suggestions, and its closing chapter, " on the 

 probable future of the human species " under the 

 laws of selection, is highly interesting and noteworthy. 

 The other and shorter essay discusses a special point, 

 and brings out a corollary of the law of heredity 

 which may not have been thought of before, but 

 which is perfectly clear as soon as it is stated. It ex- 



