ORGANIC EVOLUTION — MENTAL 195 



Therefore, while it is clear that the races which adhere 

 to that one Church have not a monopoly of genius, it 

 is clear that in that Church alone is it allowed free 

 play, or comparatively free play. 



I have now finished the introductory portion of my 

 work, and may in comfort proceed with my proper 

 theme, the Present Evolution of Man. The ground is 

 cleared, and I have by anticipation met some objections 

 which would otlierwise have been raised. The three main 

 facts I have endeavoured to drive home have been — 



(1) that every species must necessarily undergo retrogres- 

 sion, unless that retrogression be checked by selection ; 



(2) that in such a high multicellular organism as man 

 acquired variations cannot be transmitted ; and (3) 

 that in such an organism living amidst immensely 

 complex and heterogeneous surroundings, the action 

 of Natural Selection has been mainly to develop so 

 extraordinary a power of varying in response to appro- 

 priate stimulation, direct or indirect, from the environ- 

 ment, such a remarkable power of individually acquiring 

 fit variations, that very much, indeed by far the greatest 

 part of the characteristics of such a high organism are 

 due to stimulation acting on this power to vary, are 

 variations acquired by the individual, but variations 

 which are not transmissible. Therefore, though acquired 

 variations are not transmissible, yet the variations 

 acquired by every " normal " individual have a magni- 

 tude and importance far beyond that which is commonly 

 attributed to them by biologists, who usually measure 

 a variation by the amount of its deviation from the 

 " normal " standard, forgetting that the normal standard 

 of development itself is only attained as a result of long- 

 continued stimulation acting on the inborn power to vary, 

 and therefore that the structures, physical and mental, 

 of normal individuals, being in great measure a bundle of 



