82 CHARLES DARWIN, 



single variations ever being perpetuated, and has convinced me, 

 though not in quite so broad a manner as here put. I always 

 thought individual differences more important ; but I was 

 blind and thought single variations might be preserved much 

 oftener than I now see is possible or probable. I mentioned 

 this in my former note merely because I believed that you 

 had come to a similar conclusion, and I like much to be in 

 accord with you. I believe I was mainly deceived by single 

 variations offering such simple illustrations, as when man 

 selects." 



From these two letters to Wallace we see that the 

 latter was the first to give up the larger variations in 

 favour of ordinary individual differences. 



Darwin also wrote to Victor Carus on May 4th, 

 1869 :— 



" I have been led to . . . infer that single variations 

 are even of less importance, in comparison with individual 

 differences, than I formerly thought." ^ 



There has been much misconception on this 

 point, and a theory of evolution by the selection of 

 large single variations — a view held by many, but 

 not by Darwin — has been passed off as the Darwinian 

 theory of natural selection. It is surprising that 

 this old mistake should have been repeated at so 

 recent a date, and on so important an occasion as 

 the Presidential Address to the British Association 

 at Oxford on August 8th, 1894, and that so ill-aimed 

 a criticism should have been quoted with approval 

 in a leading article in the Times of the following 

 day. The following extracts from Lord Salisbury's 

 address unfortunately leave no doubt on the matter : 



