REMARKS ON NA TURAL SELECTION. 345 



CHAPTER XX. 



NATURAL SELECTION CONSIDERED AS A MEANS OF 

 MODIFICATION. THE CONFUSION WHICH THIS EX- 

 PRESSION OCCASIONS. 



WHEN Mr. Darwin says that natural selection is the 

 most important "means" of modification, I am not 

 sure that I understand what he wishes to imply by the 

 word " means." I do not see how the fact that those 

 animals which are best fitted for the conditions of their 

 existence commonly survive in the struggle for life, 

 can be called in any special sense a " means " of modi- 

 fication. 



"Means" is a dangerous word; it slips too easily 

 into "cause." We have seen Mr. Darwin himself say 

 that Buffon did not enter on " the causes or means " * of 

 modification, as though these two words were synony- 

 mous, or nearly so. Nevertheless, the use of the word 

 " means " here enables Mr. Darwin to speak of Natural 

 Selection as if it were an active cause (which he con- 

 stantly does), and yet to avoid expressly maintaining 

 that it is a cause of modification. This, indeed, he 

 has not done in express terms, but he does it by impli- 

 cation when he writes, " Natural Selection might le most 

 effective in giving the proper colour to each kind of 

 * ' Origiu of Species,' Hist. Sketch, p. xiii. 



