362 EVOLUTION, OLD AND NEW. 



CHAPTER XXI. 



MB. DARWIN'S DEFENCE OF THE EXPRESSION, NATURAL 

 SELECTION PROFESSOR MIVART AND NATURAL 



SELECTION. 



So important is it that we should come to a clear under- 

 standing upon the positions taken by Mr. Darwin and 

 Lamarck respectively, that at the risk of wearying the 

 reader I will endeavour to exhaust this subject here. 

 In order to do so, I will follow Mr. Darwin's answer to 

 those who have objected to the expression, "natural 

 selection." 



Mr. Darwin says : 



" Several writers have misapprehended or objected 

 to the term, 'natural selection.' Some have even 

 imagined that natural selection induces variability." * 



And small wonder if they have ; but those who have 

 fallen into this error are hardly worth considering. 

 The true complaint is that Mr. Darwin has too often 

 written of " natural selection " as though it does 

 induce variability, and that his language concerning it 

 is so confusing that the reader is not helped to see 

 that it really conies to nothing but a cloak of difference 

 from his predecessors, under which there lurks a con- 



* ' Origin of Species,' p. 62. 



