1859-1S63] DIRECT ACTION 213 



every single difference which we see might have occurred Letter 146 

 without any selection. I do and have always fully agreed ; 

 but you have got right round the subject, and viewed it from 

 an entirely opposite and new side, and when you took me 

 there I was astounded. When I say I agree, I must make the 

 proviso, that under your view, as now, each form long remains 

 adapted to certain fixed conditions, and that the conditions of 

 life are in the long run changeable ; and second, which is 

 more important, that each individual form is a self-fertilising 

 hermaphrodite, so that each hair-breadth variation is not lost 

 by intercrossing. Your manner of putting the case would be 

 even more striking than it is if the mind could grapple with 

 such numbers — it is grappling with eternity — think of each of 

 a thousand seeds bringing forth its plant, and then each a 

 thousand. A globe stretching to the furthest fixed star would 

 very soon be covered. I cannot even grapple with the idea, 

 even with races of dogs, cattle, pigeons, or fowls ; and here all 

 admit and see the accurate strictness of your illustration. 



Such men as you and Lyell thinking that I make too much 

 of a Deus of Natural Selection is a conclusive argument 

 against me. Yet I hardly know how I could have put in, in 

 all parts of my book, stronger sentences. The title, as you 

 once pointed out, might have been better. No one ever objects 

 to agriculturists using the strongest language about their 

 selection, yet every breeder knows that he does not produce 

 the modification which he selects. My enormous difficulty 

 for years was to understand adaptation, and this made me, I 

 cannot but think, rightly, insist so much on Natural Selection. 

 God forgive me for writing at such length ; but you cannot tell 

 how much your letter has interested me, and how important 

 it is for me with my present book in hand to try and get clear 

 ideas. Do think a bit about what is meant by direct action 

 of physical conditions. I do not mean whether they act ; my 

 facts will throw some light on this. I am collecting all cases of 

 bud-variations, in contradistinction to seed-variations (do you 

 like this term, for what some gardeners call " sports " ? ) ; these 

 eliminate all effects of crossing. Pray remember how much I 

 value your opinion as the clearest and most original 1 ever get. 



I see plainly that WelwitscJria 1 will be a case of Barnacles. 



1 Sir Joseph's great paper on Welwitschia mirabilis was published in 

 the Linn. Soc. Trans., 1863. 



