282 LIFE AND HABIT. 



nation and self-stultification, owing to the indefinite 

 tendency of the variations, which thus could not have 

 developed either a preyer or a preyee, but would have 

 gone round and round and round the primordial cell 

 till they were weary of it. 



As against Mr. Darwin, therefore, I think that the 

 objection just given from Mr. Mivart is fatal. I believe, 

 also, that the reader will feel the force of it much more 

 strongly if he will turn to Mr. Mivart's own pages. 

 Against the view which I am myself supporting, the 

 objection breaks down entirely, for grant " a little dose of 

 ^judgement and reason " on the part of the creature itself 

 — grant also continued personality and memory — and 

 a definite tendency is at once given to the variations. 

 The process is thus started, and is kept straight, and 

 helped forward through every stage by " the little dose 

 of reason," &c, which enabled it to take its first step. 

 We are, in fact, no longer without a helm, but can steer 

 each creature that is so discontented with its condition, 

 as to make a serious effort to better itself, into some — 

 and into a very distant — harbour. 



It has been objected against Mr. Darwin's theory that 

 if all species and genera have come to differ through the 

 accumulation of minute but — as a general rule — fortui- 

 tous variations, there has not been time enough, so far 

 as we are able to gather, for the evolution of all existing 

 forms by so slow a process. On this subject I would 

 again refer the reader to Mr. Mivart's book, from which 

 I take the following : — 



