16 6 NATURAL SELECTION vn 



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being " an end in itself," and with the statement of its being 

 given to natural objects " for its own sake." 



How New Forms are, produced by Variation and Selection 

 Let us now consider another of the popular objections 

 which the Duke of Argyll thus sets forth : 



"Mr. Darwin does not pretend to have discovered any 

 law or rule, according to which new forms have been born 

 from old forms. He does not hold that outward conditions, 

 however changed, are sufficient to account for them. . . . His 

 theory seems to be far better than a mere theory to be an 

 established scientific truth in so far as it accounts, in part at 

 least, for the. success and establishment and spread of new 

 forms when they have arisen. But it does not even suggest the 

 law under which, or by or according to which, such new forms 

 are introduced. Natural Selection can do nothing, except 

 with the materials presented to its hands. It cannot select 

 except among the things open to selection. . . . Strictly 

 speaking, therefore, Mr. Darwin's theory is not a theory on 

 the Origin of Species at all, but only a theory on the causes 

 which lead to the relative success or failure of such new forms 

 as may be born into the world " (Reign of Law, p. 230). 



In this and many other passages in his work the Duke 

 of Argyll sets forth his idea of creation as a "creation by 

 birth," but maintains that each birth of a new form from 

 parents differing from itself has been produced by a special 

 interference of the Creator, in order to direct the process of 

 development into certain channels ; that each new species is 

 in fact a " special creation," although brought into existence 

 through the ordinary laws of reproduction. He maintains, 

 therefore, that the laws of multiplication and variation cannot 

 furnish the right kinds of materials at the right times for 

 natural selection to work on. I believe, on the contrary, 

 that it can be logically proved from the six axiomatic laws 

 before laid down, that such materials would be furnished ; but 

 I prefer to show there are abundance of facts which demon- 

 strate that they are furnished. 



The experience of all cultivators of plants and breeders of 

 animals shows that, when a sufficient number of individuals 

 are examined, variations of any required kind can always be 



