SECT, in.] INTRODUCTION. 13 



can only be guessed at. It thus happens that we can only get 

 an indefinite knowledge of Adaptation, which for the purposes of 

 our problem is not an advance beyond the original knowledge 

 that organisms are all more or less adapted to their circumstances. 

 No amount of evidence of the same kind will carry us beyond this 

 point. Hence, though the Study of Adaptation will always remain 

 a fascinating branch of Natural History, it is not and cannot be a 

 means of directly solving the problem of the origin of Species. 



SECTION III. 

 Continuity or Discontinuity of Variation. 



What is needed, then, is evidence of a new kind, for no 

 amount of evidence of the kinds that have been mentioned will 

 take us much beyond our present position. We need more know- 

 ledge, not so much of the facts of anatomy or development, as of 

 the principles of Evolution. The question to be considered is how 

 such knowledge may be obtained. It is submitted that the 

 Study of Variation gives us a chance, and perhaps the only one, of 

 arriving at this knowledge. 



But though, as all will admit, a knowledge of Variation lies at 

 the root of all biological progress, no organized attempt to obtain it 

 has been made. The reason for this is not very clear, but it 

 apparently proceeds chiefly from the belief that the subject is too 

 difficult and complex to be a profitable field for study. However 

 this may be, the fact remains, that since the first brief treatment of 

 the matter in Animals and Plants under Domestication no serious 

 effort to perceive or formulate principles of Variation has been 

 made, and there is before us nothing but the most meagre and 

 superficial account of a few of its phenomena. Darwin's first 

 collection of the facts of Variation has scarcely been increased. 

 These same facts have been arranged and rearranged by each 

 successive interpreter ; the most various and contradictory pro- 

 positions have been established upon them, and they have been 

 strained to shew all that it can possibly be hoped that they will 

 shew. Any one who cares to glance at the works of those who 

 have followed Darwin in these fields may assure himself of 

 this. So far, indeed, are the interpreters of Evolution from adding 

 to this store of facts, that in their hands the original stock 

 becomes even less until only the most striking remain. It is 

 wearisome to watch the persistence with which these are revived 

 for the purpose of each new theorist. How well we know the 

 offspring of Lord Morton's mare, the bitch ' Sappho,' the Sebright 

 Bantams, the Himalaya Rabbit with pink eyes, the white Cats 

 with their blue eyes, and the rest ! Perhaps the time has come 



