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CHAPTER XIV. 



ME. MIVART AND MR. DARWIN. 



"A distinguished zoologist, Mr. St. George Mivart," 

 writes Mr. Darwin, " has recently collected all the ob- 

 jections which have ever been advanced by myself and 

 others against the theory of natural selection, as pro- 

 pounded by Mr. Wallace and myself, and has illustrated 

 them with admirable art and force ("Natural Selec- 

 tion," p. 176, ed. 1876). I have already referred the 

 reader to Mr. Mivart's work, but quote the above 

 passage as showing that Mr. Mivart will not, probably, 

 be found to have left much unsaid that would appear to 

 make against Mr. Darwin's theory. It is incumbent 

 upon me both to see how far Mr. Mivart's objections 

 are weighty as against Mr. Darwin, and also whether or 

 not they tell with equal force against the view which I 

 am myself advocating. I will therefore touch briefly 

 upon the most important of them, with the pur- 

 pose of showing that they are serious as against the 

 doctrine that small fortuitous variations are the origin 

 of species, but that they have no force against evolution 

 as guided by intelligence and memory. 



But before doing this, I would demur to the words 

 used by Mr. Darwin, and just quoted above, namely, 



