78 NO STRUGGLE NO SELECTION 



I shall show that though individual differences are 

 often inherited, they cannot, in the free arena of 

 organic life, be transmitted through successive genera- 

 tions ; that by her own established laws Nature has 

 deprived herself of the power of selecting them, and of 

 keeping up the continuous copulation of like with like ; 

 that, therefore, she cannot accumulate them as man 

 does in his domesticated productions. 



I must here be somewhat elementary, so that I may 

 emphasise the distinction between individual variations 

 and specific and generic characteristics a distinction 

 which throughout the Origin of Species Darwin appears 

 inclined to suppress. In the more highly organised 

 creation all existing species are derived from genera 

 that have become extinct. 



All species, and of course all the individuals of 

 each species, inherit from the old genera. The 

 characteristic marks of each species are, for the most 

 part, modifications of those of the genus from which it 

 has been derived, which modifications have been trans- 

 mitted by uninterrupted inheritance through a long 

 succession of generations. 



But each species, under the action of changed 

 external conditions, has been changed in certain 

 particulars of function and structure in the process 

 of being adapted to its new environment. The 

 changes thus superinduced upon the old generic 

 characteristics form the characteristic marks that 

 distinguish the different species of each genus from 

 one another. The present characteristics of each 



