264 DARWINIANISM. 



he wants. He reads a multitude of books together with 

 whole series of Journals and Transactions. He sends 

 out queries " wholesale " to breeders and gardeners ; he 

 converses with breeders and gardeners, and with pigeon- 

 fanciers even at Gin-palaces in the Borough. He calls 

 this " working on true Baconian principles." It was 

 certainly the means of producing, as we have partly seen 

 already, an enormous compilation of what are termed 

 facts facts not subjected, we may allow ourselves to 

 say on the whole, to any very strict or straitened regula- 

 tions of reception. But the precise result was this, That 

 the secret of breeding was selection (" Selection was the 

 keystone of man's success, whether with animals or 

 plants ") : so that the only question now was, Did Nature 

 act with her species as the breeder acted with his races ? 

 In other words, does Nature breed, even as man breeds ? 

 does she breed spontaneously, naturally, and uncon- 

 sciously, just as he breeds consciously, elaborately, and 

 artificially ? does she breed species, just as he breeds 

 races ? Even at a glance one sees that this is a hard 

 matter. The two cases and places seem very widely 

 apart and very far from being on a par. No doubt 

 nature can foster individuals by contingency of chance, 

 just as man does by necessity of plan. We saw how the 

 horses of the marsh were fed heavily into flesh. But 

 how is she to breed breed with a purpose breed to a 

 foregone conclusion, if even blindly ? Bulls, and rams, 

 and stallions, cows, and ewes, and mares, are all chosen. 

 But nature is utterly indiscriminate. We all know that if 

 we want robust children, or blue-eyed children, or red- 

 haired children, we are almost to a certainty sure to 

 succeed if we will but accordingly pair. No breeder 

 knows any secret but that. Whether he would breed 

 general quality the strong, or particular quality the 

 woolly, he has only suitably to pair. But can Nature do 



