346 DARWINIAN1SM. 



divergence takes place under domestication where an 

 originally uniform stock of horses has been split up into 

 race-horses, dray-horses, etc., and then goes on to explain 

 how the same principle applies to natural species." 



This is how tlie same principle applies to natural 

 species : 



" But how, it may be asked, can any analogous principle apply in 

 nature ? I believe it can and does apply most efficiently (though it 

 was a long time before I saw how) from the simple circumstance 

 that the more diversified the descendants from any one species 

 become in structure, constitution and habits, by so much will they 

 be better enabled to seize on many and widely diversified places in 

 the polity of nature, and so be enabled to increase in numbers. We 

 can clearly discern this in the case of animals with simple habits. 

 Take the case of a carnivorous quadruped, of which the number 

 that can be supported in any country has long ago arrived at its full 

 average. If its natural power of increase be allowed to act, it can 

 succeed in increasing (the country not undergoing any change in 

 conditions) only by its varying descendants seizing on places at 

 present occupied by other animals : some of them, for instance, being 

 enabled to feed on new kinds of prey, either dead or alive ; some 

 inhabiting new stations, climbing trees, frecpienting water, and 

 some, perhaps, becoming less carnivorous. The more diversified in 

 habits and structure the descendants of our carnivorous animals 

 become, the more places they will be able to occupy. What applies 

 to one animal will apply throughout all time to all animals, that is, 

 if they vary, for otherwise natural selection can effect nothing. So 

 it will be with plants. It has been experimentally proved, that if a 

 plot be sown " in short, the illustration which we have seen before, 

 pp. 228-230, and p. 269. 



If asked how he would transfer the horses from the stable 

 to the jungle, he answers, "I believe !" I believe it can be 

 done, and efficiently too, " though it was a long tim-e before I 

 saw how I " That means what we have already seen (p. 2 2 8 ) 

 when engaged in construing what was meant by diverg- 

 ence. It is the " joy," " whilst in his carriage," " long 

 after he had come to Down ; " for it was then, whilst in 

 his carriage, that he suddenly saw how. And that 



