124 



FOOT-NOTES TO EVOLUTION. 



still more than for likeness, and for good reason. If 

 her creatures are left unlike, it is so nriuch the easier for 

 her to find places for them in the crowded world of life. 

 Moreover, unlikeness gives play for selection. She can 

 save her favourites and discard her failures. 



So in the chromatin of his two parents Richard Roe 

 finds his potentialities, his capacities, and his limita- 

 tions. But latent in these are other 



Atavism. .. j ^u r .. .^- u j j 



capacities and other limitations handed 



down from other generations before them. Each grand- 

 father and grandmother has some claim on Richard 

 Roe, and behind these dead hands from older graves 

 are still beckoning in his direction. The past will not 

 let go, but with each generation the dust or the crust 

 grows deeper over it. Moreover, these old claims grow 

 less and less with time, because with each new genera- 

 tion there are twice as many competitors. Besides this, 

 as we shall see beyond, these past generations can make 

 no claim on him except through the agency of his 

 own parents.* 



* We may sum up Richard Roe's inheritance by making use 

 of the formulae of algebra, a science which deals with unknown 

 characters that bear definite relations to each other. 



Let A be the aggregate of species and race characters inherited 



from the father. Let A' be the species and race characters inher- 



A + A' 

 ited from the mother. Then , as A = A', will amount to 



2+2 



A again. A forms the greater part of Richard Roe in numerical 

 aggregate, but in the Anglo-Saxon race it is an invariable quan- 

 tity, and therefore not of importance in making up the character 

 by which we know him from his fellows. 



Let B be the recognisable peculiarities of the father, and B' 

 the recognisable peculiarities of the mother. How shall these be 



divided? Obviously not more than should be expected, 



for a body can not be made up of peculiarities. We may infer 

 from Gallon's studies that these figures are in excess of the 



