NATURAL SELECTION 



animals, but protects during each varying season, as 

 far as lies in his power, all his productions. He often 

 begins his selection by some half-monstrous form; or 

 at least by some modification prominent enough to 

 catch the eye or to be plainly useful to him. Under 

 Nature, the slightest differences of structure or con- 

 stitution may well turn the nicely balanced scale in 

 the struggle for life, and so be preserved. How fleet- 

 ing are the wishes and efforts of man! how short his 

 time ! and consequently how poor will be his results, 

 compared with those accumulated by Nature during 

 whole geological periods ! Can we wonder, then, that 

 Nature's productions should be far "truer" in char- 

 acter than, man's productions; that they should be 

 infinitely better adapted to the most complex condi- 

 tions of life, and should plainly bear the stamp of far 

 higher workmanship? 



It may metaphorically be said that natural selec- 

 tion is daily and hourly scrutinizing, throughout the 

 world, the slightest variations; rejecting those that 

 are bad, preserving and adding up all that are good; 

 silently and insensibly working, whenever and wher- 

 ever opportunity offers, at the improvement of each 

 organic being in relation to its organic and inorganic 

 conditions of life. We see nothing of these slow 

 changes in progress, until the hand of time has 

 marked the lapse of ages, and then so imperfect is 

 our view into long-past geological ages, that we see 

 only that the forms of life are now different from 

 what they formerly were. 



In order that any great amount of modification 

 should be effected in a species, a variety when once 



