LAMARCK AND MR. DARWIN. 261 



exigency of their own position to examine it closely 

 but which yet upon examination proves to be as nearly 

 meaningless as a sentence can be. 



The weak point in Mr. Darwin's theory would seemi 

 to be a deficiency, so to speak, of motive power to origi-l 

 nate and direct the variations which time is to accumu- 1 

 late. It deals admirably with the accumulation of 

 variations in creatures already varying, but it does not 

 provide a sufficient number of sufficiently important 

 variations to be accumulated. Given the motive power I 

 which Lamarck suggested, and Mr. Darwin's mechan- 

 ism would appear (with the help of memory, as bearing 

 upon reproduction, of continued personality, and hence 

 of inherited habit, and of the vanishing tendency of con- 

 sciousness) to work with perfect ease. Mr. Darwin has 

 made us all feel that in some way or other variations 

 are accumulated, and that evolution is the true solution 

 of the present widely different structures around us, 

 whereas, before he wrote, hardly any one believed this. 

 However we may differ from him in detail, the present 

 general acceptance of evolution must remain as his 

 work, and a more valuable work can hardly be imagined. 

 Nevertheless, I cannot think that "natural selection," 

 working upon small, fortuitous, indefinite, unintelligent * 

 variations, would produce the results we see around us. \ 

 One wants something that will give a more definite aim 

 to variations, and hence, at times, cause bolder leaps in \ 

 advance. One cannot but doubt whether so many 

 plants and animals would be being so continually saved 

 "by the skin of their teeth," as must be so saved if 

 the variations from which genera ultimately arise are as 



