230 DARWINIANISM. 



greater increase than the unmixed ? The former, plainly, 

 have a greater variety of differences than the latter, with 

 which to meet the differences of the plot. The differences 

 of the plot are so many eyes for the hooks which are the 

 differences of the seeds; and in these differences the 

 mixed exceed the unmixed. Difference here to difference 

 there : the result is a relation, or, as it may be, a new 

 relation. Mr. Darwin's own word for relation is, as we 

 have S3en, simply " place." Variations to him, as variations, 

 hecome relegated to new " places." One is apt to feel a 

 little surprise, then, on the whole, that so much should 

 have been made of so much that is in itself so easy. The 

 new that has given so much joy to Mr. Darwin as over a 

 quite extraordinary find, is, after all, nothing but the old. 

 The splitting up of the stock of horses is nothing but an 

 illustration of the variation in its effects. The splitting 

 up is but of variations into new " places " adapted to 

 them. The divergence is no more than an illustration of 

 the modification. 



The whole thing is a striking illustration of Mr. 

 Darwin's state of mind when absorbed in the idea of a 

 projection. So vaguely he presses on, that even essential 

 distinctions escape him. The single point of modifica- 

 tion has so caught that ail-too susceptible imagination of 

 his, that he has simply given himself up to it in a cer- 

 tain confused heat lie sees nothing else. The struggle will 

 select, the stock will split up, the variety will take its place 

 all with nature as with us. He so glows himself that 

 lie makes all others glow. He persuades Lyell, Hooker, 

 Huxley, Gray to astound the public with the tidings of a 

 discovery that opens a new world to it. It was really as 

 though Columbus had come home with the unimaginable 

 fruits and flowers of an unimaginable new country. " I 

 cannot doubt," cries Mr. Darwin, " that during millions of 

 generations individuals of a species will be born with some 



