358 EVOLUTION, OLD AND NEW. 



to clear misconception from his own mind and from 

 those of his readers. 



Mr. Darwin says,* " it is easy to hide our ignorance 

 under such expressions as ' the plan of creation ' and 

 ' unity of design.' " Surely, also, it is easy to hide want 

 of precision of thought, and the absence of any funda- 

 mental difference between his own main conclusion and 

 that of Dr. Darwin and Lamarck whom he condemns, 

 under the term " natural selection." 



I assure the reader that I find the task of forming a 

 clear, well-defined conception of Mr. Darwin's meaning, 

 as expressed in his ' Origin of Species,' comparable 

 only to that of one who has to act on the advice of a 

 lawyer who has obscured the main issue as far as he can, 

 and whose chief aim has been to make as many loop- 

 holes as possible for himself to escape through in case 

 of his being called to account. Or, again, to that of 

 one who has to construe an Act of Parliament which 

 was originally framed so as to throw dust in the eyes 

 of those who would oppose the measure, and which, 

 having been since found unworkable, has had clauses 

 repealed and inserted up and down it, till it is in an 

 inextricable tangle of confusion and contradiction. 



As an example of my meaning, I will quote a passage 

 to which I called attention in 'Life and Habit.' It 

 runs : 



" In the earlier editions of this work I underrated, as 



now seems probable, the frequency and importance of 



modifications due to spontaneous variability. But it 



is impossible to attribute to this cause " (i. e. spon- 



* ' Origin of Species," p. 422. 



