268 DARWINIAXISM. 



Nevertheless, it is undoubtedly by this struggle for 

 existence that Mr. Darwin proposes to realise such 

 selection on the part of Nature, as will effect for her 

 what the breeders effect by art. Just as breeders select 

 and so produce the favourable races, so does Nature, by 

 the struggle for existence, select and produce the favour- 

 able species. Of course, the two expedients are precisely 

 the contradictories of each other. There all is affirmat- 

 ive, here all is negative. While the breeder is all for 

 congruity and peace, Mr. Darwin, in the first place at 

 all events, is all for incongruity and war. But the 

 / strange thing is this, that with all his skill and all his 

 contrivances, no breeder has yet produced a new species; 

 and no breeder can make a new race even which would 

 not presently revert to the original again so soon as his 

 care was removed from it. 



Yet perhaps this is stranger. Mr. Darwin, by his 

 own confession, is precisely situated in this respect as 

 the breeder is. If we read the postscript to the letter 

 (iii. 25), we shall know that Mr. Darwin, in his own 

 words, declares : " In fact the belief in natural selection 

 must at present be grounded entirely on general con- 

 siderations. When we descend to details, we can prove 

 that no one species has changed {i.e. we cannot prove 

 that a single species has changed] ; nor can we prove 

 that the supposed changes are beneficial, which is the 

 groundwork of the theory ; nor can we explain why 

 some species have changed and others have not" (the 

 >. square brackets are in the book). 



These declarations are crucial. General considerations 

 alone support natural selection : the very groundwork of 

 the theory is incapable of proof. 



Elsewhere (ii. 362) Mr. Darwin very unmistakably 

 expresses himself to the same effect. " I quite agree 

 with what you say on Lieutenant Hutton's Keview ; it 



