284 DARWINIAN1SM. 



fails," says Mr. Darwin, with just a delightful little turn 

 in his voice, " now that the law of natural selection has 

 been discovered ! " 



But has there been a discovery? and actually of a 

 law ? We have seen an hypothesis a gourd, as it 

 were, that came up in a night to be a shadow over 

 the land but a discovery ? Can what the Pampas 

 suggested, or South America, or the Galapagos can 

 what the breeders and fanciers suggested, or what 

 Malthus suggested, or what the split up stock of horses 

 suggested can either or all of these suggestions be 

 called a discovery ? That the similarities in species (as 

 in the beetles, say) should have struck him, and that he 

 should have then asked, What, if naturally varying in 

 time, and so naturally variously applied, they were all 

 just naturally out of each other ? that is a mere 

 supposition it is no discovery. Even as a supposition, 

 is it a credible one unless we remove it, far far out of 

 sight, into the dark ? Yes : variations, accidents, we 

 know them very well, we see them daily ; but they 

 come and they go, they appear and they disappear, they 

 are born and they die out they really do nothing ; and 

 as for forming new creatures, is not that an extra- 

 ordinarily weighty complication to burden such simple 

 perishable, transitory, passing accidents with ? A 

 mother's mark is as perfect a variation of chance as 

 even Mr. Darwin could figure for himself ; but when did 

 a mother's mark found a species ? We do not isolate 

 them ! Think you that would be enough as an all- 

 satisfactory reply ? They certainly do pass ! 



So far, one can only see the entrance here of the first 

 fallacy, on the part of the public, in reference to Mr. 

 Darwin. It was really believed that one of the greatest 

 of the known and established experts had discovered 

 something. He had discovered nothing. For years he 



