CHAPTER X. 



CRITICISM OF NATURAL SELECTION CONTINUED. 



THE suggestion of modification under (1), leads to the 

 check of adaptation under (2). 



" Till adaptation could be explained," says Mr. Darwin, 

 " it seemed useless to endeavour to prove by indirect 

 evidence that species have been modified ; " while iu 

 the known references to the action of conditions, or to 

 Lamarckian will, explanation there is none. Neither 

 the one nor the other will explain a woodpecker or a 

 tree-frog, or a hooked or plumed seed. 



With respect to conditions, we have already seen 

 enough in Mr. Darwin's regard ; and for our own part, 

 if we acknowledge their function to foster principles, we 

 are as incredulous as he is of their power to produce 

 them. 



Lamarck, we may remark too, need not be denied his 

 relative right of place. Dr. Krause means it for dis- 

 tinguished praise when he styles Erasmus "a Lamarckian 

 before Lamarck," and both of the grandsons endorse the 

 book (Krause's). Lyell seems to exclaim with some 

 surprise to Mr. Darwin, " You do not mean to ignore 

 Lamarck : he at least was for mutability of species, and 

 the men of his school appealed to domesticated varieties." 

 Mr. Darwin, for his own part also, while on almost all 

 occasions even abusively contemptuous of Lamarck, yet 



